the least imperfect ray from that most pure Act
which is God ; as we pass lower and lower down
through the grades of creation, this reflection gets "
feebler and feebler.^ God is infinite perfection ; He
is immutable ; He alone is pure Act. All created
things are both act and potentiality : act in respect
of what they are, potentiality in respect of what they
may become ; the nearer to God, the more act and
the less potentiality. The Angels are pure act rela-^
tively, not in the sense in which God alone is pure
Act. The lower we descend in the scale of creation,
actuality diminishes and potentiality increases, untiL-^
we come to what Dante calls the ultime potenze and
brevi contingenze, the ultimate potentialities and brief
contingencies, which are almost all potentiality and
' For tlie perfect immateriality of the Angels, see Summa, i.
q. 50, a. 2.
- With reference to this discourse of St. Thomas in For. xiii.,
see Dr. Moore's Studies in Dante, first series, pp. 110-111.
119
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
can readily cease to exist. Such are creatures of the
lowest order, produced by the motion and influence of
the heavens, with seed or without. There is, again,
the distinction between things created immediately
by God and those produced by means of second
causes, whereby the archetypal idea, il segno ideale or
" ideal signet," is more or less perfectly expressed.
The substantial form of anything is the likeness of a
Divine Idea stamped upon matter. If the matter
were in perfect condition and if the heavens were in
their best disposition — nella loro ottima disposizione,
as Dante puts it in the Convivio (iv. 21) — then the
created thing would be perfect too, and would per-
fectly express the Divine Idea : —
La luce del suggel parrebbe tutta.*
But this can never actually happen in nature, be-
cause, in reality, the matter does not fully lend it-
self to the influence of these second causes or the
heavens, which themselves have not everywhere
equally preserved the virtue which God has com-
municated to them, or at least are not normally in
this ottima disposizione, and therefore the segno ideale
will not be perfectly expressed. For nature works
like an artist who knows his craft {ha Vahito delVarte),
but whose hand trembles because it is deficient and
wanting in power ; nature being God's instrument of
creation, when He makes use of second causes, and
the *' habit of the art " being the influence or virtue
with which He has endowed it. It is only when God
creates immediately, without making use of second
causes, that the things created are absolutely per-
fect : —
^ The light of the seal would all appear. Par, xiii. 75.
120
THE HEAVEN OF THE SUN
Pero se il caldo Amor, la chiara Vista
Delia prima Virtu, dispone e segna,
Tutta la perfezion quivi s'acquista.
Par. xiii. 79.'
That is, Avhen the Blessed Trinity disposes the matter
and seals the form. And since the first man and the
Humanity of our Saviour were thus created immedi-
ately, and without any intervention of second causes,
certainly in them human nature was in absolute
perfection : —
L'umana natura mai nou fue,
K6 fia, qual fu in quelle due persone.'^
Therefore Solomon was not the wisest of men, but
the wisest of kings, and in that sense alone was his
wisdom so peerless. He merely chose regal prudcnza,
the wisdom sufficient for a king : " An understanding
heart to judge thy peoiDle." The words of Aquinas,
following the Scriptures, had reference only to kings :
^' Kings are many and the good are rare " : —
Ai regi, clie son molti, e i buon son rari.
Thus there is no contradiction, though, after the pro-
found arguments that led up to it, the modern reader
might possibly feel that the reconciliation of the
difficulty is a little inadequate.
Arguing from Dante's difficulty, St. Thomas utters
a warning against rash and inconsiderate judgment.
Learn not to absolutely assert or deny things, unless
quite certain of the full bearing of the question. Too
often a hastily conceived opinion misleads us, and
self-conceit then fetters our intellect to the error. It
* " "Wherefore if the fervent Love, the clear Vision of the primal
Power, do dispose and seal, all perfection is there acquired." That
is, when Love, Wisdom and Power create immediatelj*. Creation
is the work of the Power of the Father, the Wisdom of the Sou,
the Love of the Holy Spirit. Cf . Par. x. 1-6.
* Human nature never was, nor shall be, what it was in those
two persons.
121
U-
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
is worse than useless to search for truth illogically,
for ignorance is better than the errors into which
such men fall. And thence follows a practical moral,
illustrated by the similes of the rose upon the thorn
that seemed dead, and the ship wrecked at the har-
bour's mouth, not to judge of the ultimate fate of a
human soul, nor flatter ourselves that we can see
such a one as he is in the sight of God. The lesson
\^ is doubtless an admirable one, and yet we may be
devoutly thankful that Dante did not apply it to
himself. Had he done so, the world might have
been j)oorer by the loss of the Inferno.
As soon as St. Thomas has ceased, Beatrice asks
the blessed spirits to solve a question, not yet formed
in Dante's thought, concerning the splendour of the
body after the resurrection. Will this dazzling light
eternally clothe them round ; and, if the sense of
sight is with their glorified bodies, how can it bear
the exceeding light ? A still more joyous dance and
hjnnn to the Blessed Trinity greets the question,
which is answered by the divinest light, eWdently
Solomon. Dr. Scartazzini points out that Solomon
is probably selected because of what is said in Eccle-
siastes (iii. 18-22), where the deaths of men and
beasts seem spoken of as apparently much the same :
" Who knoweth if the spirit of the children of Adam
ascend upward, and if the spirit of the beasts descend
downward ? " He is, as it were, answering himself at
the same time. Throughout the eternal festi\4ty of
Paradise, this glorj^ shall be radiated round the
blessed. The brightness is in proportion to the
I love, love is consequent upon vision, and the in-
tensity of the vision corresponds to grace super-
naturally added to the natural powers of the human
soul. Man cannot attain to his ultimate happiness
122
THE HEAVEN OF THE SUN
by the exercise of his natural powers, for that ulti-
mate and perfect hapj)iness consists in the vision of
the Divine Essence. When soul and body are re-
united, the soul's perfection will be completed ; for,^
according to St. Thomas : " The body belongs to the
integrity of human beatitude, though not to its
essence." Then will be poured forth upon the soul
even more of the light that enables it to see God ;
vision, love and radiance will be increased. The
body itself will be transfigured by the splendour
of the soul, and the faculty of sight will then be
strong to bear it with delight.
The fervent Amen that bursts from the two circles,
showing desire of the resurrection of the body not
only for themselves but for those who had been dear
to them on earth, illustrates the rather curious article
of the Summa (II. — 2, q. 18, a. 2), where St. Thomas
discusses the question whether there is Hope in the
blessed. He decides that neither Faith nor Hope can '
any longer exist in the saints of Paradise. They
desire and pray for the beatitude of others not by
the virtue of Hope, but rather from love of Charity.
And although they still expect the glory of the body,
they do not hope for it. The principal object of
Hope is glory of the soul, and the glory of the body
is so much less, in comparison to the glory of the
soul, that it has not the character of something
arduous for one who already possesses the glory of
the soul ; and so its expectation does not come under
the definition of the object of Hope, which is future
good, arduous, but possible of attainment.
Now follows that mysteriously beautiful episode of
the third garland of spirits in the Sun, their appari-
tion from afar like the brightening of the horizon
before sunrise, or the appearing of stars in the sky
123
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
as evening closes in. They suddenly api)roacli, and
Dante's eyes are dazzled : —
Ed ecco intorno, cli chiarezza pari,
Nascere un lustro sopra quel clie v'era,
A guisa d'orizzonte che rischiari.
E si come al salir di prima sera
Comincian per lo ciel nuove parvenze,
Si clie la vista pare e non par vera;
Parvemi li novelle sussistenze
Cominciar a vedere, e fare un giro
Di fuor dair altre due circonferenze.
O vero isfavillar del Santo Spiro,
Come si fece subito e candente
Agli occhi miei che vinti nou softriro !
Ma Beatrice si bella e ridente
Mi si mostro, che tra quelle vedute
Si vuol lasciar che non seguir la mente.
Par. xiv. 67.*
Some have interpreted these lines as indicating a
sudden vision of Angels, a crown of angelic subsist-
ences surrounding these two rings of doctors and
floating in a golden sea of light ; others, again, have
supposed that this new light comes from the next
lieaven. There can, however, be little doubt that
Dante refers to a third ring of spirits, gradually
* And lo ! all round about of equal brightness
Arose a lustre over what was there,
Like a horizon that is clearing up.
And as at rise of early eve begin
Along the welkin new appearances,
So that the sight seems real and unreal,
It seemed to me that new subsistences
Began there to be seen, and make a circle
Outside the other two circumferences.
O very sparkling of the Holy Spirit,
How sudden and incandescent it became
Unto mine eyes, that vanquished bore it not !
But Beatrice so beautiful and smiling
Appeared to me, that with the other sights
That followed not my memory I must leave her.
Longfellow.
124
THE HEAVEN OF THE SUN
appearing and then suddenly dazzling him. Ben-
venuto's idea is that, since the doctors were as
many and as brilliant as the stars of heaven, Dante
merely chose out a few of the chief for the first two
garlands, and relegated the rest to a third great circle
enclosing these two, and that his eyes were dazzled
because his intellect could not fully investigate the
deep teaching of so many illustrious authors. Ben-
venuto seems to regard these new^ spirits as less
bright than the others, which Dante's words cer-
tainly do not imply. Other early commentators
suppose that he refers to authors that he personally
had not been able to study or comprehend. For the
modern reader this episode might become a mysti-
cally expressed prophecy of future discoveries and of
men of science to come ; an acknowledgment that
there were truths which the mediaeval schoolmen
had not dreamed of, that a day would come when
the world would no longer say of Aristotle, wdth
Dante himself in the Convivio : Assai basta alia
gente, a cui parlo, per la sua cjrande autorita sapere,
che questa terra e fissa e non si gira, e che essa col
mare b centra del cielo} It is a merely momentary
glimpse of these new spirits that he catches. And
if for once we are going to indulge in these fanciful
speculations, w^e may perhaps notice that Beatrice
does not offer any explanation, but rather hurries
him upward ; and we may remember how^ the Eccle-
siastic Authority was not exactly going to show it-
self favourable to the discoveries of Galileo, and that
Theology has not always been prepared to accept the 1/^
results of even more recent scientific investigations.
* Convivio, iii. 5. " It is quite enough for tlie people to whom I
am speaking to know, on liis great authority, that this earth is
fixed and does not revolve, and that it with the sea is the centre of
the heaven."
125
II
THE HEAVEN OF MARS
"Nos autem, cui mundus est patria, velut piscibua
aequor, quamquam Sarnum biberimus ante dentes, et
Florentiam adeo diligamiis ut, quia dileximus, exilium
patiamur iniuste." Dante, De Vulgari Eloqucntia.
THE increased beauty and joy of Beatrice mark
the ascent a step higher in the Eternal Palace,
to the glowing red splendour of Mars, even more rosy
than its wont for her coming. Dante is " translated
to more lofty salvation," because a step nearer to the
First Cause. His act of thanksgiving to God {Par.
xiv. 88) marks this higher grade, and should be com-
j)ared with the corresponding passages in which he
returns thanks for his reception into the Moon {Par.
ii. 46) and for his ascent to the Sun {Par. x. 55).
Now^ he no longer needs the admonition of Beatrice
to manifest his gratitude ; and the words employed
^to express it, the holocaust "wath the whole heart and
the speech of the heart, implying a complete offering
of the whole being to God in thanksgiving, convey
far more than those in which he had corresponded
to her bidding in the first and even in the fourth
heaven. Then there appears to him in the depth of
Mars a great image of the Crucified, blood-red, formed
by glowing stars which are the souls of warriors of
God, greater or less in size according to their degree
126
THE HEAVEN OF MARS
of bliss. They mov^e across and along the Cross,
flashing "with exultation where they meet or pass.
Dante describes their appearance by similes of the
Galaxy and of the penetration of a ray of light into
n shaded room, but protests his utter inability to
adequately express what he saw, and so draws a moral
lesson : let the reader take up his own cross and
follow Christ, and so at last come himself to see this
vision. For this is the sphere that the Celestial Vir-
tues rule, the Angels that imitate the Divine Strength
and Fortitude, and render all things in God " strongly
and manfully valiant in chaste and masculine virtue "
(Colet on Dionysius) ; and therefore the warrior
saints whom they influenced are grouped to form that
sacred sign whereby Christ taught us that true virtue
and strength is endurance.
It is not quite clear to what extent these souls are
to be regarded as necessarily enjoying a higher degree
of bliss than those in the Sun. After the earth's
shadow has once been passed, the progression is not
as obvious as in the lower heavens. Benvenuto sup-
poses that, since the doctors and teachers fought for
God with the tongue and pen, they did not merit so
much as these warriors who fought with hand and
sword for the precept of God in the old dispensation
and the Catholic faith in the new. Most probably
Dante would have us understand in general that this
sphere represents a higher grade of perfection, as in-
dicated by the greater beauty of Mars and of the
souls that appear in it, without necessarily supposing
that any special spirit in the Sun is enjoying a less
perfect vision than one in this or another higher
sphere, since there are clearly degrees in each.
A wondrous melody resounds along the Cross from
these spirits, heard but only in part comprehended,
127
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
the Risurgi e Vinci, the only words that come to him,
being possibly connected with the fifty-first and fifty-
second chapters of Isaiah (" Arise, arise, put on thy
strength ") ; and at first he is so rapt in ecstasy as
not even to behold the increased loveliness of Beatrice.
Then the sj)irits forming the Cross of Mars in celes-
tial charity cease their song. We have heard Beatrice
in the fourth Canto admit some truth in the theory
that to the stars is due both good and evil influence,
Vonor delV influenza e il biasmo. Therefore, on his
first ascent into Mars, the hymn of the blessed souls
that greeted Dante was (as far as he could compre-
hend it) an exhortation to follow the good influence
of the planet, which tends to fortitude and constancy ;
but now, when about to learn more of this heaven,
and, especially, to hear of his own exile to be borne
and of the injustice of others towards himself, he
bases the opening of the fifteenth Canto upon love
of charity, in opposition to the evil influence of Mars,
which inflames men to anger and strife. And, in his
characteristic manner, he draws from the details of
his vision moral teaching concerning the doctrines
and practices of the Church. Just as, from the
charity of the spirits of the Proud in the first ter-
race of Purgatory, he had passed on to the doctrine
of praj^er for the holy souls of the dead {Purg. xi.
31) :—
Se cli k\ sempre ben per uoi si dice,
Di qua die dire e far per lor si puote
Da quei c'hauno al voler buona radice ?
Ben si dee loro aitar lavar le note,
Che portar quinci, si clie mondi e lievi
Possano uscire alle stellate rote.^
^ If tbere good -words are always said for us,
"What may not here be said and done for them,
By those who have a good root to their will?
128
THE HEAVEN OF MARS
So here, from the charity of these warrior souls, he
confirms the doctrine of the intercession of saints
{Par. XV. 7) : —
Come saranno a giusti preghi sorde
Quelle sustanzie che, per darmi voglia
Ch'io le pregassi, a tacer fur Concorde ? ^
Like a falling star, a rosy light passing from the
right arm across and down through the Cross, tender
as Anchises to jEneas in Elysium, addresses Dante as
his blood. Benvenuto notes that Cacciaguida in his
words to Dante is imitating the voice from Heaven
in the Gospel : " This is my beloved Son, in whom I \^
am well pleased." In the loveliness of the smile of
Beatrice and the profound nature of the spirit's
speech, at first beyond the conception of mortal in-
tellect, the higher grade of glory of this sphere is
indicated. When Cacciaguida bids Dante ask what
he would know, the idea of the saints reading in God,
all that it concerns them to see, is expressed with ^
beautiful vividness. All alike possess the vision of
the Divine Essence ; and since they see the Cause of
all things, the First or Principle of all, these blessed
spirits see what flows from Him, just as from a clear
idea of mathematical unity proceeds the knowledge
of the other numbers. Again in Dante's answer,
where he excuses himself for his inability to offer
Well may we help them wash away the marks
That hence they carried, so that clean and light
They may ascend unto the starry wheels !
Longfellow.
^ How shall those spirits be deaf to just prayers, who, to give
me desire of praying to them, were silent in concord ? Sustanzie,
here and elsewhere (e.g. Pai\ iii. 29) used for the separated spirits
of the blessed, stands for the Angels in Par. xxviii. 75, xxix. 76.
129 K
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
adequate thanks for his reception, God is described
as La Prima Equalita, the First Equality, who, when
manifested to the saints in Paradise, has made their
love and wisdom equal. Love and knowledge in Him
are equal, for all the divine perfections are identified
in the Divine Essence, and He has made His saints
like Himself in this : " We know that when He shall
appear we shall be like to Him ; because we shall see
Him as He is." But, with mortals, love and wisdom
are not yet equal ; voglia and argotnento, affection
and power of expressing it, are diversely feathered
in their flight ; the former outspeeds and anticipates
the latter, and thus the poet can only utter his grati-
tude with the silent language of the heart for this
paternal welcome : —
Pero non ringrazio,
Se non col core, alia paterna festa.
Side by side in Dante's heart with his ideal Rome,
the divinely ordained seat of Pope and Emperor,
there is the corresponding image of an ideal Florence,
la hellissima e famosissima figlia di Roma, when
Florence within her ancient walls was peaceful, tem-
perate and pure : —
Si stava in pace, sobria e pudica.
So now, after Cacciaguida has secured Dante's good
works for his son Aldighiero, Dante's great-grand-
father who is still in the first terrace of Purgatory
expiating the sin of pride, he proceeds to give such
an ideal picture of the Florentine republic as Dante
supposes it to have been in the twelfth century,
when such noble and simple-minded republicans as
Bellincion Berti and the great Guelf families of the
Nerli and Vecchietti passed through its streets and
130
THE HEAVEN OF MARS
served the State. It is a poetic ideal of a mediaeval \><
Free Commune, before the corrupting influence of
France had fallen upon it, and when the world of the
youths and ladies of Boccaccio's Decameron was still
in the far future. The simple antique customs of the
women, the upright and unpretending lives of the
men, are contrasted with the ever-increasing luxury,
immorality and effeminacy of the Florence that
Dante knew. Then the spirit of the old Florentine
soldier passes to his own history ; his birth in that
ideal Florence, his baptism in its ancient Baptistery ;
and, with an incidental thrust at the papal neglect of
the Holy Land, he ends with his own military exploits
and knighthood under Conrad III., and his death as
a Crusader at the hands of the Infidels. " A right
valiant warrior," exclaims Benvenuto, " he served
under a Christian prince, fought for Christian
Faith against the paynim, and died a soldier of
Christ."
Following this, the sixteenth Canto fittingly opens
with a sentence on true nobility. In the Convivio
Dante had rebuked the \ievf that those are noble
who are descended from men of worth ; and taught
that it is in the soul that true nobleness must be
sought, that it is a purely spiritual gift of God to the
individual soul and a seed of eternal felicity. But
now, in the heaven of Mars, he has just heard how
his ancestor had been knighted by the Emperor him-
self and had died a hero's death, and at first he is
disposed to exult a little vaingloriously and admit
that, after all, there is something in our poca nohilta
di sangue : —
O poca nostra nobilta di sangue !
Se gloriar di te la gente fai
Quaggiu, dove I'affetto nostro langue,
131
vy
DANTE'S TEN HEAVENS
Mirabil cosa non mi sara mai ;
Chfe 1^, dove appetite non si torce,
Dico nel cielo, io me ne gloriai.
Par. xvi. 1.^
But at once he recollects himself, with a half rebuke
of his own thought, and with a moral lesson to be
drawn therefrom : —
Ben sei tu manto che tosto raccorce,
Si che, se non s'appon di die in die,
Lo tempo va dintorno con le force.^
Benvenuto da Imola has an interesting remark upon
this passage, which illustrates his method of dis-
tinguishing between the literal and allegorical mean-
ings of the poem. " Our author," he says, " was
most noble with the true nobility of virtue and of
knowledge ; and yet he gloried in his mind when he
heard narrated the ancient nobility of his blood.
But here arises a pretty question. How could our
author have had a desire of the vain glory of blood
in Heaven, when such nobility is not there, nor can
possibly be desired there where no sin can be ? It
must briefly be said that he is speaking of the ynoral
Paradise ; for he was now mentally, not really and
truly in Heaven. Our author only ^shes to say
that so great and so strong is this appetite of glory,
that it not only invades the earthly minds of men
^ thou our poor nobility of blood,
If thou dost make the people glory in thee
Down here where our affection languishes,
A marvellous thing it ne'er will be to me ;
For there where appetite is not perverted,
I say in Heaven, of thee I made a boast.
Longfellow.
* Truly thou art a cloak that quickly shortens,
So that, unless we piece thee day by day,
Time goeth round about thee with his shears.
Ibid.
132
THE HEAVEN OF MARS
peeking the vain things of the world, but even the
celestial minds of those who are bent upon the
speculation of things divine, such as philosophers and
theologians." This distinction is of wide application.
It explains the presence of such evil things as the
serpent and the siren in the Purgatorio.^ In the
essential Purgatory of separated spirits purifying
themselves, they can obviously have no place ; they
refer only to the moral Purgatory, wherein man is
striving ever upward to attain the end for which God
has ordained him.
After hearing of the greatness of his ancestor,
Dante addresses him with the Voi ; even as, in
Purgatorio xix., he had changed his tu for Voi, when
he discovered that the prostrate soul, whom he was
questioning, had been the "Roman Pastor," Adrian
V. He had given the tu to almost all the other souls
with whom he had met in his ecstatic pilgrimage.
The more ceremonious form of speech is reserved for \/^
certain spirit i magni, " great spirits " whom Dante
desires to specially honour ; for Cavalcante de'
Cavalcanti, the father of the first of his friends ; for
Farinata degli Uberti, the saviour of Florence ; for