c are unac throughout eral works, ere entirely disclosures rt of Rome. unwarrant ilable with INTRODUCTION. To enable us to understand the design of Dante's ssed himself ced. Were it m, abound f exquisite mels-still, made him niable symarious allufurnish an en; but we render the place the Homer, of In the beginning of the fourteenth century, presents a lamentable picture of darkness and m At that unhappy period, the pure religion of the p tive Christians had been wholly corrupted by the s stitious innovations of the Court of Rome. Ov affairs, both ecclesiastical and political, she exerci withering and debasing influence. The faculties enchained—the feelings deadened, by the inventio priestcraft; and the commission of crime encourag the sale of Indulgences. Hence resulted a sta morals more gross than can well be conceived:the example set by many of the Popes was as infa as we are compelled to believe-what must have the condition of the people, who looked up to as infallible? So venalized was the Church by covetousness of the Priests, as to create a belief i mind of Dante that the usurped temporal power of Papal Rome was indeed the Antichrist foretold in the Revelations. The evils thus arising from religious abuses were aggravated by the violence of party spirit. Guelfs and Ghibellins-partisans of the Pope or of the Emperorcarried on a constant and deadly warfare throughout the numerous states into which Italy was divided. The Guelfs had blindly rendered themselves the instruments of the Church; and while fighting, as they imagined, in defence of their liberties, were unconsciously forging for themselves the fetters of a degrading tyranny. Too weak to unite Italy under one government; and at the same time, too powerful to submit to the Emperors of Germany, the Court of Rome preserved her political ascendancy by fomenting the antipathies of the two factions. Whenever her cause appeared declining, foreigners were called in to its support. Hence Italy was deluged with blood, and her welfare sacrificed to ambition and avarice. With this picture before our eyes, let us imagine Dante-a being of transcendant genius and profound learning, imbued with strong religious and patriotic feelings, roused as it were from sleep, in the full maturity of his intellect, to the contemplation of this sad reality. Let us imagine him in the situation he describes -thrown amid a vicious generation, so corrupted by Guelfs and Imperor— roughout divided. = the inas they unconscilegrading governubmit to me prehe anti use apsupport. welfare magine found triotic matu d re cribes d by evil example, and hardened in iniquity, that he m justly describe himself as wandering in a rank savage wilderness; "Like one lost in a thorny wood, That rends the thorns, and is rent with the thorns; Not knowing how to find the open air, Third part Henry VI. act iii. s Through this vale of misery, all traces of the stra path were wholly obliterated; and even the upr and virtuous Dante found great difficulty in extrica himself from the mazes of error. How he first beca entangled, he was unable, he says, to discover ;immersed was he in sleep at the time he abandoned true path; or, as he intimates in the fifteenth canto so young as to be incapable of exercising a sound cretion. The recollection of the past came over soul like the bitterness of death; when, awakened conviction of the truth, he contemplated the dangers had escaped. But with these personal feelings blended others of a far more comprehensive charac and, in the miseries of his native land, Dante felt the sympathy which the most devoted patriotism co inspire. The wickedness of his countrymen-t moral and political degradation-the licentiousness turbulence of their governments, and above all, flagrant corruption of the Romish Church, overwhelmed him in sorrow and dismay. On arriving however at the termination of the valley in which he had been wandering, he looks upward, and beholds a mountain, illumined with the beams of the sun. His eyes are directed with joy to this beautiful abode of virtue, upon which Revelation sheds its unerring ray. To impart to others that light which had been graciously vouchsafed to himself, is the object of his earnest desire. Animated by the prospect, he proceeds on his journey with sanguine hopes of emancipating Italy from the yoke of a venal Church, and of effecting a great reformation in the religious and political state of his distracted country. Scarcely has he begun to ascend the mountain, when he is opposed by three wild beasts, -a Panther, a Lion, and a she-Wolf. The restlessness of the Panther, its varied colours, and cruel disposition, afford a lively representation of Florence, divided into the implacable factions of the Neri and Bianchi, and continually fluctuating at the caprice of a changeable and headstrong populace. The continued vexation experienced from this animal impedes the progress of Dante, and frequently inclines him to retreat. Various circumstances, however, combine to encourage him;-the beautiful season of spring -the religious consolation of Easter-the commencement of a new century (1300,) ushered in by a solemn verwhelmed f the valley s beautiful nd politi- e. The nal iminclines , com spring mencesolemn Jubilee, and a change in the state of parties at Flo described by the gay skin of the Panther, prese him the brightest omens of success. But these are soon dissipated by the appearance of the L emblematical of France, and her ambitious interf in the government of Florence. The poet is a same time attacked by the she-Wolf, intended to sent the Court of Rome. These two powers unit oppose the virtuous endeavours of Dante, he desp reaching the summit of the beautiful mountain sees his miserable country, for which he possess most ardent love, become a prey to the ambit foreign potentates, and exposed to all the calami tyranny and misgovernment. From the union o poral with spiritual power in the person of the these manifold evils derived their source. Her confine the authority of the See of Rome to re affairs, and to re-establish a constitutional monar Italy, were the two great objects Dante had in But to compose the jealousies of the numerous lics, and to unite them under one government, only be effected by restoring the privileges of th perors of Germany, which the Court of Rome, in h of sway, had in a great measure annihilated. A of the Cæsars, the Emperors were the lawful mo of Italy; and to the revival of their dominion therefore looked forward with anxious expectatic |