These Ten Heavens are the heavens of the Paradiso ; nine of them revolving about the earth as a central point, and the motionless Empyrean encircling and containing all.

In the first Heaven, or that of the Moon, are seen the spirits of those who, having taken monastic vows, were forced to violate them. In the second, or that of Mercury, the spirits of those whom desire of fame incited to noble deeds. In the third, or that of Venus, the spirits of Lovers. In the fourth, or that of the Sun, the spirits of Theologians and Fathers of the Church. In the fifth, or that of Mars, the spirits of Crusaders and those who died for the true Faith. In the sixth, or that of Jupiter, the spirits of righteous Kings and Rulers. In the seventh, or that of Saturn, the spirits of the Contemplative. In the eighth, or that of the Fixed Stars, the Triumph of Christ. In the ninth, or Primum Mobile, the Angelic Hierarchies. In the tenth, or the Empyrean, is the Visible Presence of God.

It must be observed, however, that the lower spheres, in which the spirits appear, are not assigned them as their places or dwellings. They show themselves in these different places only to indicate to Dante the different degrees of glory which they enjoy, and to show that while on earth they were under the influence of the planets in which they here appear. Dante expressly says, in Canto IV. 28 :

He of the Seraphim most absorbed in God,
Moses, and Samuel, and whichever John
Thou mayst select, I say, and even Mary,
Have not in any other heaven their thrones

Than have those spirits that just appeared to thee,
Nor of existence more or fewer years;
But all make beautiful the primal circle,
And have sweet life in different degrees,
By feeling more or less the eternal breath.

They showed themselves here, not because allotted
This sphere has been to them, but to give sign
Of the celestial which is least exalted.

The threefold main division of the Paradiso, indicated by a longer prelude, or by a natural pause in the action of the poem, is 1. From Canto I. to Canto X. 2. From Canto X. to Canto XXIII. 3. From Canto XXIII. to the end.

2. Wisdom of Solomon i. 7: "For the spirit of the Lord

filleth the world"; and Ecclesiasticus xlii. 16: "The sun that giveth light looketh upon all things, and the work thereof is full of the glory of the Lord.”

4. The Empyrean. Milton, Par. Lost, III. 57:

From the pure Empyrean where he sits

High throned above all highth.

5. 2 Corinthians xii. 2: " I knew a man in Christ about fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell : God knoweth ;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth :) how that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter."

7. Convito, III. 2: “Hence the human soul, which is the noblest form of those created under heaven, receiveth more of the divine nature than any other. . . . And inasmuch as its being depends upon God, and is preserved by him, it naturally desires and wishes to be united with God, in order to strengthen its being."

And again, Convito, III. 6: “Each thing chiefly desireth its own perfection, and in it quieteth every desire, and for it is each thing desired. And this is the desire which always maketh each delight seem insufficient; for in this life is no delight so great that it can satisfy the thirst of the soul, so that the desire I speak of shall not remain in our thoughts." 13. Chaucer, House of Fame, III. 1 : —

19. Chaucer, Ballade in Commendacion of Our Ladie,

O winde of grace! now blowe unto my
O auriate licour of Clio! to write
My penne enspire, of that I woll indite.

20. Ovid, Met., VI., Croxall's Tr. :

saile;

When straight another pictures to their view

The Satyr's fate, whom angry Phoebus slew;

Who, raised with high conceit, and puffed with pride,

At his own pipe the skilful God defied.

Why do you tear me from myself, he cries?

Ah, cruel! must my skin be made the prize?

This for a silly pipe? he roaring said,

Meanwhile the skin from off his limbs was flayed.

And Chaucer, House of Fame, 139, changing the sex of Marsyas :

And Mercia that lost hire skinne,

Bothe in the face, bodie, and chinne,

For that she would envyen, lo!

To pipen bette than Apollo.

36. A town at the foot of Parnassus, dedicated to Apollo, and here used for Apollo.

Chaucer, Quene Annelida and False Arcite, 15:

Be favorable eke thou, Polymnia!

On Parnassus that, with thy susters glade
By Helicon, and not ferre from Cirrha,
Singed, with voice memoriall, in the shade
Under the laurer, which that maie not fade.

39. That point of the horizon where the sun rises at the equinox; and where the Equator, the Zodiac, and the equinoctial Colure meet, and form each a cross with the Horizon. 41. The world is as wax, which the sun softens and stamps with his seal.

44. “This word almost," says Buti, "gives us to understand that it was not the exact moment when the sun enters Aries."

60. Milton, Parad. Lost, III. 593 :

Not all parts like, but all alike informed

With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire.

61. Milton, Parad. Lost, V. 310:

Seems another morn

Risen on mid-noon.

68. Glaucus, changed to a sea-god by eating of the salt

meadow grass.

Ovid, Met., XIII., Rowe's Tr. :

Restless I grew, and every place forsook,
And still upon the seas I bent my look.
Farewell forever! Farewell, land! I said;
And plunged amidst the waves my sinking head.
The gentle powers, who that low empire keep,
Received me as a brother of the deep;

To Tethys, and to Ocean old, they pray

To purge my mortal earthy parts away.

"As Glaucus," says Buti, "was changed from a fisherman to a sea-god by tasting of the grass that had that power, so the human soul, tasting of things divine, becomes divine."

73. Whether I were spirit only. 2 Corinthians xii. 3 : "Whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth."

One of the questions which exercised the minds of the Fathers and the Schoolmen was, whether the soul were created before the body or after it. Origen, following Plato, supposes all souls to have been created at once, and to await their bodies. Thomas Aquinas combats this opinion, Sum. Theol., I. Quæst. cxvIII. 3, and maintains, that "creation and infusion are simultaneous in regard to the soul." This seems also to be Dante's belief. See Purg. XXV. 70 :

The primal Motor turns to it well pleased

At so great art of nature, and inspires
A spirit new, with virtue all replete.

Lucretius, Nature of Things, I. 123, Good's Tr. :

Yet doubtful is the doctrine, and unknown,

Whether, coeval with th' eternal frame,

The soul first lives when lives the body first,

Or boasts a date anterior.

76. It is a doctrine of Plato that the heavens are always in motion, seeking the Soul of the World, which has no determinate place, but is everywhere diffused. See also Note 1.

78. The music of the spheres.

Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, V. 1:

Look, how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins:
Such harmony is in immortal souls;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of decay
Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.

And Milton, Hymn on Christ's Nativity:

Ring out, ye crystal spheres,

Once bless our human ears,

If ye have power to touch our senses so;
And let your silver chime

Move in melodious time;

And let the bass of Heaven's deep organ blow;

And, with your ninefold harmony,

Make up full consort to the angelic symphony.

Rixner, Handbuch der Geschichte der Philosophie, I. 100, speaking of the ten heavens, or the Lyre of Pythagoras, says: "These ten celestial spheres are arranged among themselves in an order so mathematical and musical, that is so harmonious, that the sphere of the fixed stars, which is above the sphere of Saturn, gives forth the deepest tone in the music of the universe (the World-Lyre strung with ten strings), and that of the Moon the highest."

Cicero, in his Vision of Scipio, inverts the tones. He says, Edmonds's Tr. :

"Which as I was gazing at in amazement, I said, as I recovered myself, From whence proceed these sounds, so strong and yet so sweet, that fill my ears? The melody,' replies he, which you hear, and which, though composed in unequal time, is nevertheless divided into regular harmony, is effected by the impulse and motion of the spheres themselves, which, by a happy temper of sharp and grave notes, regularly produces various harmonic effects. Now it is impossible that such prodigious movements should pass in silence; and nature teaches that the sounds which the spheres at one extremity utter must be sharp, and those on the other extremity must be grave; on which account, that highest revolution of the star-studded heaven, whose motion is more rapid, is carried on with a sharp and quick sound; whereas this of the moon, which is situated the lowest, and at the other extremity, moves with the gravest sound. For the earth, the ninth sphere, remaining motionless, abides