Evening star., 1928-04-01

tocracy. a rising and perflaps-to-be-
saved bourgeoisie. and hopeiessly lost
peasantry bound TO suffer forever.
Dante's God believed In irrevocab!e
caste: Before Beatrice was born we
had been ordained 10 her for her hand
maids" And this 'old, grim beard Of
a god" would have no nonsense about
ultimately saving the souls in hell: II
am made by God" says the gentle
Beatrice to the damned, such that
your misery touches me not" st. Ber-
nard had preached the reality of hell
fire with sadistic severity; St Thomas
Aquinas had written: "The blessed in
glory will have no compassion on the
damned. for that would impugn Gods
justice" Is IL any wonder that that
oloodthirsty god Is dead. and that man.
kind today IS struggling TO reconcei9e
deity In nobler image?
Ek& r
There is something a little fulsome,
| tnen In Ruskin's praise of Dantes
character: THE central man of all the
world. as representing in perfect BAL
ance the imaginative, moral and INTEL
lectual faculties, all at their highest.
is Dante" Let US not deceive ourselves:
no man was ever more reyengeful and
bitter; in the Inferno" Ia the Bible Of
Dantes vengeance, a pamphlet In the
war Of Guelph and Ghibeiline. Dante
| invents hell, as man invented Il, that
his enemies might have a last resting
place; 1t is a repository providentially
| designed for those who have opposed or
| differed from him In this world. We
can understand why Voltaire, with his
brilliant exaggeration, wrote 10 Father
| Bettinelh: Il estimate highly the
courage with which you dare To say
tnat Dante was nnadnan and his
work a morstrosity'; and why, he
could add, in the Philosophical Die
tionary": The Italians call him divine,
but 1t Is a hidden divinity; few people
under stand his orcles. He has COM
menta tors, which, perhaps, is another
reason Tor not being understood. His
| reputation will 20 on increasing. be-
cause scarcely anybody reads him
! But Voltaire was here as unsympa-
thetic as Dante himself-he forgets
that the Divine Comedy" was written
| not as narrative merely but az an
allegory. The middle ages loved ale
| CORY, because they thought Of spirit and
had to speak and picture in terms Of
matter. Literally" says Dante CT his
terribly Comedy" the subject is the
/ state OF souls after death. taken sirn0ly.
| Ii, however. the work is accepted al
t~s1AiSohst tiIc SuDJeCL lS man. Accord
/ ing as by merit or demerit through
freedom of choice he is subject to JUS
tice. rewarding or punitive" And in
/ the "Convivio" he writes of one of his
/ poems: Since the literal sense is slf-
/ hciently explained, it Is time to proceed
TO the allegorical and true explanation" ="
| +
| What. then. is the allegorical "and
| true" explanation of the "Inferno"7
| Essentially 1t Is description OF the ac-
tual states OF man on earth. Hell is the
ruin and despair that come of sin
and crime; purgatory Is the recogni-
/ ton OF error. 1t Is self-discipline and
sef-reformation, It is the painful effort
to acquire and practice wisdom: para
disc Is the possession and enjoyment Of
knowledge and beauty and love These
are stages in the Pilgrims Progress"
OF the human soul. Had not Dante
known all the sufferings of hell in his
outcast life? Had he not sought
through thousand torments the q1iii-
ance OF wisdom (VirgiD to the blessed
ness OF love (Beatrice)? By knowledge
| ne thinks, We can make our way olIt
ef he'll; but only by wisdom and love
can We enter into happires.
So, after Virgil has taken him through
purgatory. whose inhabitants are in
pain, and yet joyful with the sense OF
their movement toward liberation. the
Roman poet leaves him at the gates Of
heaven: he. knowledge. can take him
Continued on Sixth Pace1