by heaven's dew, the ancient coronet of the mighty goddesses, and the saffron with golden ray; nor do the sleepless founts that feed the channels of Cephissus fail, but ever, each day, it rushes o'er the plains with its stainless wave, fertilizing the bosom of the earth; nor have the choirs of the Muses spurned this clime; nor Venus, too, of the golden rein. And there is a tree, such as I hear not to have ever sprung in the land of Asia, nor in the mighty Doric island of Pelops, a tree unplanted by hand, of spontaneous growth, terror of the hostile spear, which flourishes chiefly in this region, the leaf of the azure olive that nourishes our young. This shall neither any one in youth nor in old age, marking for destruction, and having laid it waste with his hand, set its divinity at naught; for the eye that never closes of Morian Jove regards it, and the blueeyed Minerva.”

We have also Homer's description of the Garden of Alcinoüs, Odyssey, VII., Buckley's Tr. :—

"But without the hall there is a large garden, near the gates, of four acres ; but around it a hedge was extended on both sides. And there tall, flourishing trees grew, pears, and pomegranates, and apple-trees producing beautiful fruit, and sweet figs, and flourishing olives. Of these the fruit never perishes, nor does it fail in winter or summer, lasting throughout the whole year; but the west wind ever blowing makes some bud forth, and ripens others. Pear grows old after pear, apple after apple, grape also after grape, and fig after fig. There a fruitful vineyard was planted: one part of this ground, exposed to the sun in a wide place, is dried by the sun; and some grapes] they are gathering, and others they are treading, and further on are unripe grapes, having thrown off the flower, and others are slightly changing colour. And there are all kinds of beds laid out in order, to the furthest part of the ground, flourishing throughout the whole year and in it are two fountains, one is spread through the whole garden, but the other on the other side goes under the threshold of the hall to the lofty house, from whence the citizens are wont to draw water."

Dante's description of the Terrestrial Paradise will hardly fail to recall that of Mount Acidale in Spenser's Faerie Queene, VI. x. 6:—

"It was an Hill plaste in an open plaine,

That round about was bordered with a wood Of matchlesse hight, that seemed th' earth to disdaine;

In which all trees of honour stately stood,
And did all winter as in sommer bud,
Spredding pavilions for the birds to bowre,
Which in their lower braunches sung aloud;
And in their tops the soring hauke did towre,
Sitting like king of fowles in maiesty and powre.
"And at the foote thereof a gentle flud

His silver waves did softly tumble downe,
Unmard with ragged mosse or filthy mud;
Ne mote wylde beastes, ne mote the ruder
clowne,

Thereto approch; ne filth mote therein drowne :

But Nymphes and Faeries by the bancks did sit

In the woods shade which did the waters

See also Tasso's Garden of Armida, in the Gerusalemme, XVI.

20. Chiassi is on the sea-shore near Ravenna. "Here grows a spacious pine forest," says Covino, Descr. Geog., p. 39, "which stretches along the sea between Ravenna and Cervia.

25. The river Lethe.

40. This lady, who represents the Active life to Dante's waking eyes, as Leah had done in his vision, and whom Dante afterwards, Canto XXXIII. 119, calls Matilda, is generally supposed by the commentators to be the celebrated Countess Matilda, daughter of Boniface, Count of Tuscany, and wife of Guelf, of the house of Suabia. Of this marriage Villani, IV. 21, gives a very strange account, which, if true, is a singular picture of the times. Napier, Flor. Hist., I. Ch. 4 and 6, gives these glimpses of the Countess :

"This heroine died in 1115, after a

The dart too faithful, and too deep the wound. Fired with a mortal beauty, she disdains

To haunt th' Idalian mount, or Phrygian plains. She seeks not Cnidos, nor her Paphian shrines, Nor Amathus, that teems with brazen mines: Even Heaven itself with all its sweets unsought, Adonis far a sweeter Heaven is thought."

72. When Xerxes invaded Greece he

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crossed the Hellespont on a bridge of boats with an army of five million. So say the historians. On his return he crossed it in a fishing-boat almost alone, a warning to all human arrogance. Leander naturally hated the Hellespont, having to swim it so many times. The last time, according to Thomas Hood, he met with a sea nymph, who, enamoured of his beauty, carried him

to the bottom of the sea. See Hero and Leander, stanza 45 :--

"His eyes are blinded with the sleety brine, His ears are deafened with the wildering noise;

He asks the purpose of her fell design, But foamy waves choke up his struggling voice,

Under the ponderous sea his body dips,. And Hero's name dies bubbling on his lips. "Look how a man is lowered to his grave, A yearning hollow in the green earth's lap ; So he is sunk into the yawning wave, The plunging sea fills up the watery gap; Anon he is all gone, and nothing seen, But likeness of green turf and hillocks green.

"And where he swam, the constant sun lies

sleeping,

Over the verdant plain that makes his bed; And all the noisy waves go freshly leaping,

Like gamesome boys over the churchyard dead;

The light in vain keeps looking for his face, Now screaming sea-fowl settle in his place."

80. Psalm xcii. 4: "For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands."

87. Canto XXI. 46 :—

"Because that neither rain, nor hail, nor snow, Nor dew, nor hoar-frost any higher falls Than the short, little stairway of three steps."

94. Only six hours, according to Adam's own account in Par., XXI. 139:

name

If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine
Following, above the Olympian hill I soar,
Above the flight of Pegasean wing.
The meaning, not the name, I call: for thou
Nor of the Muses nine, nor on the top
Of old Olympus dwell'st; but, heavenly-born,
Before the hills appeared, or fountain flowed,
Thou with Eternal Wisdom didst converse,
Wisdom thy sister, and with her didst play
In presence of the Almighty Father, pleased
With thy celestial song."

47. The general form which objects may have in common, and by which they resemble each other.

49. The faculty which lends discourse to reason is apprehension, or the faculty

83. Revelation iv. 4: And round about the throne were four and twenty seats and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment ; and they had on their heads crowns of gold."

These four and twenty elders are supposed to symbolize here the four and twenty books of the Old Testament. The crown of lilies indicates the purity of faith and doctrine.

85. The salutation of the angel to the Virgin Mary. Luke i. 28: "Blessed art thou among women. Here the words are made to refer to Beatrice.

92. The four Evangelists, of whom the four mysterious animals in Ezekiel are regarded as symbols. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, I. 99:

"The general application of the Four Creatures to the Four Evangelists is of much earlier date than the separate and individual application of each symbol, which has varied at different times; that propounded by St. Jerome, in his commentary on Ezekiel, has since his time prevailed universally. Thus, then,-I. To St. Matthew was given the CHERUB, or human semblance, because he begins his Gospel with the human generation of Christ; or, according to others, because in his Gospel the human nature of the Saviour is more insisted on than the divine. In the most ancient mosaics, the type is human, not angelic, for the head is that of a man with a beard.

has set forth the royal dignity of Christ : or, according to others, because he begins with the mission of the Baptist,-the voice of one crying in the wilderness,'which is figured by the lion: or, according to a third interpretation, the lion was allotted to St. Mark because there was, in the Middle Ages, a popular belief that the young of the lion was born dead, and after three days was awakened to vitality by the breath of its sire; some authors, however, represent the lion as vivifying his young, not by his breath, but by his roar. In either case the application is the same; the revival of the young lion was considered as symbolical of the resurrection, and Mark was commonly called the 'historian of the resurrection.' Another commentator observes that Mark begins his Gospel with 'roaring,'-'the voice of one crying in the wilderness;' and ends it fearfully with a curse,-'He that believeth not shall be damned;' and that, therefore, his appropriate attribute is the most terrible of beasts, the lion. 3. Luke has the Ox, because he has dwelt on the priesthood of Christ, the ox being the emblem of sacrifice. 4. John has the EAGLE, which is the symbol of the highest inspiration, because he soared upwards to the contemplation of the divine nature of the Saviour."

100. Ezekiel i. 4: "And I looked, and behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof, as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass.

105. In Revelation iv. 8, they are described as having "each of them six wings;" in Ezekiel, as having only four.

107. The triumphal chariot is the Church. The two wheels are generally interpreted as meaning the Old and New Testaments; but Dante, Par. XII. 106,

speaks of them as St. Dominic and St. Francis.

108. The Griffin, half lion and half eagle, is explained by all the commentators as a symbol of Christ, in his divine and human nature. Didron, in his Christian Iconography, interprets it differently. He says, Millington's Tr., I. 458:

:-

"The mystical bird of two colours is understood in the manuscript of Herrade to mean the Church; in Dante, the biformed bird is the representative of the Church, the Pope. The Pope, in fact, is both priest and king; he directs the souls and governs the persons of men; he reigns over things in heaven. The Pope, then, is but one single person in two natures, and under two forms; he is both eagle and lion. In his character of Pontiff, or as an eagle, he hovers in the heavens, and ascends even to the throne of God to receive his commands; as the lion or king he walks upon the earth in strength and power."

He adds in a note: "" Some commentators of Dante have supposed the griffin to be the emblem of Christ, who, in fact, is one single person with two natures; of Christ, in whom God and man are combined. But in this they are mistaken; there is, in the first place, a manifest impropriety in describing the car as drawn by God as by a beast of burden. It is very doubtful even whether Dante can be altogether freed from the imputation of a want of reverence in harnessing the Pope to the car of the Church."

IIO. The wings of the Griffin extend upward between the middle list or trail of splendour of the seven candles and the three outer ones on each side.

117. The chariot of the sun, which Phaeton had leave to drive for a day, is thus described by Ovid, Met. II., Addison's Tr. :

"A golden axle did the work uphold, Gold was the beam, the wheels were orbed with gold.

The spokes in rows of silver pleased the sight, The seat with party-coloured gems was bright; Apollo shined amid the glare of light."

I20. In smiting Phaeton with a thunderbolt. Ovid, Met. II. :—

That what he acts he is compelled to do,
Or universal ruin must ensue.
From whence he used to dart his thunder down
Straight he ascends the high ethereal throne,

From whence his showers and storms he used to pour,

But now could meet with neither storm nor shower;

Then, aiming at the youth, with lifted hand,
Full at his head he hurled the forky brand,
In dreadful thund'rings. Thus th' almighty sire
Suppressed the raging of the fires with fire."
See also Inf. XVII. Note 107.

121. The three Theological or Evangelical Virtues, Charity, Hope, and Faith. For the symbolism of colours in Art, see Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, quoted Canto VIII. Note 28.

130. The four Cardinal Virtues, Justice, Prudence, Fortitude, and Temperance. They are clothed in purple to mark their nobility. Prudence is represented with three eyes, as looking at the past, the present, and the future.

133. St. Luke and St. Paul.

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136. St. Luke is supposed to have been a physician; a belief founded on Colossians iv. 14, 'Luke, the beloved physician." The animal that nature holds most dear is man.

140. The sword with which St. Paul is armed is a symbol of warfare and martyrdom; "I bring not peace, but a sword." St. Luke's office was to heal; St. Paul's to destroy. Mrs. Jameson, Sacred and Legendary Art, I. 188, says:

"At what period the sword was given to St. Paul as his distinctive attribute is with antiquaries a disputed point; certainly much later than the keys were given to Peter. If we could be sure that the mosaic on the tomb of Otho the Second, and another mosaic already described, had not been altered in successive restorations, these would be evidence that the sword was given to St. Paul as his attribute as early as the sixth century; but there are no monuments which can be absolutely trusted before the end of the eleventh century, as regards the introduction of the sword since the end of the fourteenth century it has been so generally adopted, that in the devotional effigies I can remember no instance in which it is omitted. When St. Paul is leaning on the sword, it ex.