NOTES TO PARADISO.

CANTO I.

1. Dante's theory of the universe is the old one, which made the earth a stationary central point, around which all the heavenly bodies revolved; a theory, that, according to Milton, Par. Lost, VIII. 15, astonished even Adam in Paradise :

"When I behold this goodly frame, this world,
Of heaven and earth consisting, and compute
Their magnitudes; this earth, a spot, a grain,
An atom, with the firmament compared
And all her numbered stars, that seem to roll
Spaces incomprehensible (for such
Their distance argues, and their swift return
Diurnal), merely to officiate light

the second is that where Mercury is; the third is that where Venus is; the fourth is that where the Sun is; the fifth is that where Mars is; the sixth is that where Jupiter is; the seventh is that where Saturn is; the eighth is that of the Stars; the ninth is not visible, save by the motion mentioned above, and is called by many the Crystalline that is, diaphanous, or wholly transparent. Beyond all these, indeed, the Catholics place the Empyrean Heaven; that is to say, the Heaven of flame, or luminous; and this they suppose to be immovable, from having within itself, in every part, that which its matter deRound this opacous earth, this punctual spot, One day and night; in all their vast survey mands. And this is the cause why the Useless besides; reasoning I oft admire, Primum Mobile has a very swift moHow Nature, wise and frugal, could commit tion; from the fervent longing which Such disproportions, with superfluous hand So many nobler bodies to create, each part of that ninth heaven has to be Greater so manifold, to this one use, conjoined with that Divinest Heaven, For aught appears, and on their orbs impose the Heaven of Rest, which is next to Such restless revolution day by day it, it revolves therein with so great Repeated; while the sedentary earth, That better might with far less compass move, desire, that its velocity is almost inServed by more noble than herself, attains comprehensible; and quiet and peaceHer end without least motion, and receives, ful is the place of that supreme Deity, As tribute, such a sumless journey brought Of incorporeal speed, her warmth and light, who alone doth perfectly see himself.""

Speed, to describe whose swiftness number fails."

The reply that Raphael makes to Four general ancestor,' may be addressed to every reader of the Para

diso :

"Whether the sun, predominant in heaven,

Rise on the earth, or earth rise on the sun;
He from the east his flaming road begin,
Or she from west her silent course advance,
With inoffensive pace that spinning sleeps
On her soft axle; while she paces even,

And bears thee soft with the smooth air along:

Solicit not thy thoughts with matters hid."

Thus, taking the earth as the central point, and speaking of the order of the Ten Heavens, Dante says, Convito, II. 4: "The first is that where the Moon is ;

Of the symbolism of these Heavens he says, Convito, II. 14: "As narrated above, the seven Heavens nearest to us are those of the Planets; and above these are two movable Heavens, and one motionless over all. To the first seven correspond the seven sciences of the Trivium and Quadrivium; that is, Grammar, Dialectics, Rhetoric, Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and Astrology. To the eighth, that is, to the Physics, corresponds, and starry sphere, Natural Science, called the first science which is called Metaphysics and to the ninth sphere corresponds Moral Science; and to the Heaven of Rest, the Divine Science, which is called Theology."

The details of these correspondences X. 2. From Canto X. to Canto XXIII. will be given later in their appropriate 3. From Canto XXIII. to the end. places.

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

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. Lost, III. 57 :—*

Milton, Par.

"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.

In the first Heaven, or that of the Moon, are seen the spirits of those who, having taken monastic vows, were orced 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 knew such a man, (whether in the the true Faith. In the sixth, or that body, or out of the body, I cannot tell ; of Jupiter, the spirits of righteous Kings God knoweth :) how that he was caught and Rulers. In the seventh, or that of up into paradise, and heard unspeakable Saturn, the spirits of the Contemplative. words, which it is not lawful for a man In the eighth, or that of the Fixed Stars, the Triumph of Christ. In the ninth, or Primum Mobile, the Angelic Hier archies. 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 them selves 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 Dante expressly says, in

here appear. 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 :-I. From Canto I. to Canto

to utter."

AD-1

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 this is

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. 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, IIL

I:

"God of science and of light,

Apollo! thorough thy grete might
This litel last boke now thou gye.

And if that divine virtue thou
Wilte helpen me to showen now
That in my hed ymarked is,

Thou shalt yse me go as blive
Unto the next laurer I se,
And kysse it for it is thy tre.
Nowe entre in my brest anone

19.

Chaucer, Ballade in Commendacion of Our Ladie, 12 :

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

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

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, 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.

"Restless I grew, and every place forsook,
And still upon the seas I bent my look.
Farewell for ever! 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."

was

"As Glaucus," says Buti, 66 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 139, 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 This seems also to be to the soul." 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." 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

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 he exact noment when the sun enters Aries."

60. Milton, Par. Lost, III. 593:"Not all parts like, but all alike informed With radiant light, as glowing iron with fire." 61. Milton, Par. 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. :

diffused. See also Note I.

78. The music of the spheres. Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice, V

I:

"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.

"Now these eight directions, two of which have the same powers, effect seven sounds, differing in their modulations, which number is the connecting Hunt :principle of almost all things. Some

learned men, by imitating this harmony "Just as a mother, with sweet, pious face, with strings and vocal melodies, have pened a way for their return to this place as all others have done, who, endued with pre-eminent qualities, have cultivated in their mortal life the pursuits of heaven.

"The ears of mankind, filled with these sounds, have become deaf, for cf]