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and profundity. But Dante chose Virgil in preference to Aristotle as the representative of human wisdom, for the following reasons probably. In the first place Virgil was a poetical personage, and hence a much more suitable conductor and expounder in a poem than the abstract philosopher Aristotle. And then also, Dante stood to Virgil in the near relation of a grateful scholar.* By his means had he developed his poetical talent, and could hence call him "sweet father." Further, Virgil, in the sixth book of the Eneid, gives a description of the spiritual world as far as Elysium, (which Dante regards as, to a certain extent, a shadowy picture of the Terrestrial Paradise,) and comes even to a certain kind of Purgatory. Hence it was also customary to look upon this book as prophetical of Christianity. And lastly, Virgil was highly celebrated during the middle ages, as the singer of proud, heathen Rome, in which Dante saw a type of the world-dominion of the Christian Papacy.

Virgil, then, is the representative here of worldly wisdom. He comes not of his own accord to Dante, but as sent by Beatrice, who has been incited thereto by Saint Lucia, at the desire of the Virgin Mary, the symbol of sympathetic, preventing, and intercessory grace.§ This is intended to show that even heathen wis dom stands under the guidance of a higher influence, and is compelled to become subservient to revelation. He accompanies the singer of the Divine Comedy through Hell and Purgatory, for natural reason and philosophy may bring men to a certain knowledge of themselves in the state of sin, punishment, and penitence. But it is plain, at the same time, that Virgil is most at home in Hell. Here he takes sure steps. "Ben so il cammin," says he: ("I know the way well.")|| Only in that region where Hell has changed its form, by reason of the earthquake at Christ's death, is he forced to inquire the way. In Purgatory, on the other hand, he finds himself more in the sphere of mere presentiment;

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he makes uncertain and timid steps, and calls himself a stranger who is unacquainted with the way.* Hence he himself needs the guidance of angels from terrace to terrace. On the mountain of Purgatory Virgil is hence the representative, not of the common Paganism, but of that which in prophetic anticipation goes beyond itself.

Having reached the summit of the mount of purification, Virgil is compelled to return, and the office of conductor is now fulfilled by a higher spirit. For Philosophy can come only to the threshold of revelation; God himself and the proper blessedness of the soul, the natural man is unable to comprehend. Beatrice, who accompanies our poet through Paradise, is evidently the representative of Theology, (which rests upon Divine revelation,) or of Christian Wisdom. Since the centre of this, and the chief object of its knowledge, is the love of God, subjectively and objectively, (that of God towards men, and men towards God,) Beatrice is well suited to be its representative; for in her, Dante as a boy had already seen the ideal of a pure ethereal love, and through her first had his sense for poetry and a higher world unfolded itself. Saint Bernard, lastly, is the representative of mystic contemplation, which is required necessarily by the scholastic theology as its proper complement. In opposition to the scholastic Abelard, who drew everything down into the sphere of the dialectic understanding, his motto was: "God is known, so far as he is loved." The contemplation of the pious heart, according to him, stands even higher than_Faith itself. Hence it is he that leads Dante to gaze upon the Trinity, after preparing himself for it by previous prayer.§

IV. In conclusion, it remains still to cast a glance on the relation of Dante to Protestantism. This sublime poet has naturally not been wanting in interpreters,

* Purg. ii. 61-63.

E Virgilio rispose: voi credete
Forse, che siamo esperti di esto loco;
Ma uoi sem peregrin; come voi siete.

Purgat. xviii. 46-48; xxxiii. 10. Comp. xxxi. 130, where the three so called theological virtues, Faith, Love, and Hope, dance singing around Beatrice.

luf. ii. 105; Purg xxx. 121-123.

§ Parad. xxx. 147-151.

who use him as a weapon against Protes- | ically, to the Catholic Church of the midtantism, as though belonging exclusively dle ages, of which he may be regarded to the Roman Church. The ablest inter- as the poetical representative. His theolpreter of this kind is the Frenchman, Dr. ogy, especially the eschatology, apart from Ozanam, a jurist, whose work has also the formal additions of a poetic fancy, been translated into the German.* He agrees with the scholastic, whose object even goes so far as to put Luther on a par was, as is well known, to justify the tradiwith the Monk Dolcino, whom Dante pla- tion of the Roman Catholic Church, in its ces in the eighth circle of Hell, among the whole compass. In accordance with this, disturbers of the peace. Some on the he sees in the papacy also a divine instituother hand, with a profound and thorough tion. He regards the Roman Bishop as knowledge of Dante, have attempted to lay the successor of St. Peter, the chief shepclaim to his work in favor of the reforma- herd of the Church.* But on the other tion, especially so Goschelt and Graul.§ hand, he is no friend of the absolute power Nay, some have even gone so far as to at- of the Pope. He does not regard him as tribute to Dante a prophecy of Luther, standing above a General Council of Bishsince Veltro, the grayhound, under the ops, and as being infallible separately figure of which Virgil predicts to our taken. For in the eleventh song of the poet a reformer that was soon to arise in Inferno (v. 7-9) we meet with a heretical the Church, has the signification anagram- Pope, Anatasius, of the fifth century, who, matically of LVTERO; and the Flor- as the story goes, had denied the divine entine Landino, in his commentary on the nature of Christ. Besides, Dante will Divine Comedy, which appeared in 1481, allow to the Popes only the spiritual sucalculates that the birth of this reformer, premacy of the Church, assigning the temaccording to the passage in Purgat. xxx. poral to the German Emperor. His histo31, would take place on the 25th Nov., rico-philosophical view was this. In anti1484, which coincided almost with the quity, there were two chosen nations, a date of Luther's birth, (10th Nov., 1483.) spiritual and a secular one. The Jewish This, to be sure, is a mere conceit, although nation was chosen to prepare the way for a remarkable coincidence. Under the the introduction of the Church of Christ, swift grayhound, Dante understands Can- and its spiritual head; the Roman nation, grande della Scala, (can means hound,) whose authority in secular matters even who afterwards became the chief of the Christ acknowledged, was chosen to preGhibelline party in Italy; and he at that pare the way for the introduction of the time indulged in the pleasing hope, that Christian state, and its imperial head. he, in connection with the German Empe- Both branches of history united in Chrisror, might put an end to the pernicious tianity, and its middle point, Rome, but secular dominion of Rome. under two sceptres: to the Pope belongs the spiritual supremacy of the church and its Bishops; to the German Roman Emperor, the secular supremacy of the Christian States and their princes. Hence he

There is no doubt but that Dante, in his fundamental religious views, belongs, rad

*Dante et la Philosophie Catholique au Treizième Siècle. Par A. T. Ozanam. Paris, 1839. With him agrees on this point also, Artand de Montor, in his Historie de Dante Al. Paris, 1841.

t Infer. xxviii. 55.

Bruchstürke aus Dante Aligh.'s Glaubenslehre. Three articles in Hengstenberg's Evangel. Kirchenzeitung, 1841.

The Divina Commedia of Dante Alighieri, translated into the German, with historical elucidations, &c., by Charles Graul, Leipsig, 1843, P. I. p. iv. ff. Comp. his article on Dante, in the General Repertory for Theological Literature and Church Statistic, by Lie. H. Reuter, Berlin, 1845, Feb. number, p. 118 ff, and especially 129 and 130. Wright, in his English translation, in three vols., of the D. Comm in rhyme, London, 1839-1810, has accompanied it with parallels and elucidations from Protestant writers; but the work we have not

seen.

Parad. v. 76; Purg. xvi. 98; Inf. xix., 100, 103. However strongly Dante inveighs against Boniface VIII., (Inf. xix. 52 ff.,) he still regards his imprisonment in Anagui, by Philip the Beautiful, as a sin against Christ.

This passage was made use of as early as the time of Bellarmin in a Protestant work, which had for its object to win Italy for the evangelical faith through the authority of its greatest poet. It bears the title, Avviso piacevole data alla bella Italia da un nobile giovane Francese. Comp. Bellarmin's Controv. lib. IV. de Rom. Pontif. c. 10.

Comp Purg. xvi., 97-114; 127-129; Parad. vi. 82-90, 91, 92; and Dante's Latin work De Monarchia, which was most probably composed between the years 1310 and 1313, during the time Henry VII. was endeavoring to restore again the Imperial authority in Italy.

inveighs strongly against the worldly views and avarice of the then Popes. He wishes them to restore to the Emperor what of right belongs to him,* and to return again to the poverty of the early Bishops. He meets a mass of Popes and Cardinals in Hell among the avaricious. He is particularly bitter against Nicholas III., (died 1280,) Boniface VIII., (died 1303,) and Clement V., (died 1307,) whom he places together in the eighth circle of Hell, because they had been guilty of simony, that is, of selling ecclesiastical offices for money, (Acts viii. ;) thus bringing down the heavenly to the level with the earthly. On account of this perversion, the simonists are compelled to stand with their heads in holes of the earth, and their legs on high; from their naked soles stream forth flames, like tongues of fire; intended, doubtless, to represent the gift of the Holy Spirit, given to them at their ordination, but which became their curse.§ Dante reminds Nicholas, that Christ received no money from Peter, when he committed to him the power of the keys, and charged him with the feeding of his lambs. "Follow me," (John xvi. 19,) was the only condition. Nor did Peter receive money from Matthias, when he was chosen in the place of Judas. "You, shepherd!" he proceeds, "John had in his eye when he beheld the woman sitting upon many waters, committing fornication with the kings of the earth, (Rev. xvii. 1-2.) You differ from the idolator only in this, that he worships one, but you a hundred idols." "Ah, Constantine," he exclaims,

*Purg. xxx. 37-39.

† Parad. xxvii. 40-45.

Inf. vii. 46-48. A contrast to this is formed by Pope Hadrian V., who became converted after his ascension to the papal chair, but was still required to perform penance on account of his former avarice, Purg. xix. 91-145.

§ Inf. xix. 22 ff. Nicholas, according to Villani, was the first Pope who was guilty of open simony in favor of his relatives, (nepotismus.) Dante, with reference to his family name Orsini, (from orso, bear,) causes him to say, v. 69-73:

E veramente fui figlinol della orsa,
Cupido sì, per avanzar li orsatti

Che su lo avere, e qui me misi in borsa. Both Boniface and Clement were still living in the year 1300, which the poet makes the date of his vision, but their places in Hell were already assigned them, and Nicholas in expecting them, in fact mistakes Dante at first for Boniface.

Inf. xix. 90-97.

laf. xix. 106-114.

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Dante, in general, testifies very strongly against the secularization of the hierarchy, and inveighs also against the once so richly blessed Dominican and Franciscan orders, sometimes in zealous, angry tones, then again in mournfully plaintive language, and again with tender intercessory words, and insists with all earnestness upon a thorough reformation in head and members, with reference, not so much indeed to the doctrines as the discipline and practice of the Church. Beatrice also shows him, in a striking manner, the rejuvenescence of the vineyard of the Lord; and what is remarkable, his eyes are constantly directed, full of hope, to Germany, from whence the reformation in fact came, although later than he thought, and not from the German Emperor as he expected, but from a poor and lowly monk.

Dante has thus, as is the case with so many great men, a double face; one of which looks into the past, the other towards the future. He stands, as we have already remarked, on the turning-point between two periods. Although the most enthusiastic singer of the middle ages, his is yet, at the same time, one of the first voices on Roman Catholic ground, which demanded a thorough reformation of the Church, like that called for by the great reformatory Councils of the fifteenth century. When Rome obstinately shut her ears against these voices of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, becoming ever stronger and more pressing, the opposition gradually took a more anti-Roman and anti-Papistical character; the issue of which, at last, was the rise of an independent church, into which the best powers of the middle ages streamed over. Protestantism is the forth from the very midst of the ruling fulfilment of the prophecies which spoke church of the middle ages.

We are not willing, then, as Protestants, to renounce Dante, and to yield up the enjoyment of his immortal poem altogether

*Inf. xix. 115-117.

Parad. xii. 86-96; Purg. xxxii. 124-129; xxiii. 34-37. Comp. especially the prophetic passage, Purg. xviii. 34-60.

to the Roman Church. We look upon the middle ages as the fertile soil of the reformation, upon Catholicism as an indispensable prerequisite and preparation of Protestantism. Dante's age, the particular form of his thinking, feeling, poetry, and life, has passed away, and can never again be revived. But we gaze back upon it, with an interest similar to that with which we look upon our youth, which, although past forever, belongs still to the marrow of life, to the sum of our existence, and in so far has an everlasting meaning. We find in the Divine Comedy, under these antiquated forms, many grains of gold,

*It is the principal fault of Leigh Hunt's book on Dante, which has just now come into our hand, (stories from the Italian poets, P. I.) that he requires Dante not only to tolerate all sorts of nonsense, but also to send all men, however wicked their lives may have been, to heaven, like a sentimental Universalist of modern stamp. This is quite as ridiculous as if a Chinese should abuse England, because no tea grows there.

which are not subject to the change of times, and which we can gaze at with ever increasing delight. It is something great and beautiful to be in the possession of a lively sympathy with humanity, in all its stages of development, and especially with the Church of God of all ages and generations. Happy is he who has elevated himself to that stand-point of universal observation, where the different periods of history appear as the connected links of one glorious chain, and where all great men that have had a truly divine mission to humanity, unite in the most manifold tones of one harmonious hymn of praise to the One God. To such a one, history is a book of life, full of consolation, instruction, reproof, and enjoyment, from its commencement to its close. In the centre stands Christ and His Church, the star and central point, from whence light streams forth over all parts of the periphery. P. S.

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COLTON'S PUBLIC ECONOMY.*

FROM the formation of the first system of society, the subjects which fall within the province of political philosophy have employed the most powerful intellects of all nations. But though illustrated by the liveliest genius and the profoundest reflection, they have not until a very recent period assumed even the forms of science. We cannot tell what formulæ of economical truth passed from existence in the lost books of Aristotle the father of the peripatetic philosophy undoubtedly brought to public economics the severe method which enabled him to construct so much of the everlasting science of which the history goes back to his times; but whatever direction he gave to the subject, by the investigation of its ultimate principles and their phenomena, his successors, and the writers upon it since the revival of learning, have generally been guided by empirical laws, which in an especial degree have obtained in regard to the economy of commerce. Scarcely any of the literature or reflection upon the subject has gone behind the bold but entirely unsupported hypotheses of free trade theorists, which have been as unsubstantial as the fanciful systems of the universe that were swept from existence by the demonstrations of Newton. Not only have economical systems generally been woven of unproven hypotheses, but they have rarely evinced any such clear apprehension and constructive ability as are essential in the formation and statement of principles; and down to the impenetrable chaos of Mr. Mill's last cumbrous octavos,t there is scarcely a volume on political economy which rewards the wearied attention with any more than a vague under

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standing of the shadowy design that existed in the author's brain.

In the eminently original and scientific work before us, we see economy subjected to the fundamental and ultimate methods of investigation of which the results have a mathematical certainty. We have new facts, new reasonings, new deductions; and if the paramount ideas are not entirely original, they are discovered by original processes, and their previous existence is but an illustration of the truth that the instinctive perspicacity of the common mind often surpasses the logical faculty in cognizing laws before they are discovered from elements and relations.

The author has long held a distinguished place among our philosophical and political writers. In the fierce controversies of 1844, he restored, in a series of masterly tracts upon affairs, the name of Junius to its old celebrity and power; in the Rights of Labor, at a subsequent period, he asserted, illustrated, and with unanswerable logic vindicated, the American doctrine of the privileges and dignity of Industry-decreed to be not only the condition of existence, but the source and sign of the highest development of men and states. If we look into any of the numerous works‡ of Mr. Colton, we shall find that their most distinguishing characteristic is in the dences, that he collects, observes and analyzes his facts for himself; that he forms from phenomena disclosed by his own observation the hypotheses with which he constructs his systems. It is to such men as Colton, Carey and Greeley, or Clay, Webster and Evans, with understandings alike practical, discriminative, and logical, that we are to look for the

Public Economy for the United States. By CALVIN COLTON. 1 vol. 8vo. pp. 536. New York: A. S Barnes & Co., 1848.

Rights of Labor. By C COLTON. Pamphlet, 8vo. pp. 96. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co., 1848. + Political Economy. By Mr. Mill. 2 vols. 8vo. Edinburgh, 1848.

Most of Mr. Colton's works have appeared originally in London, where he for some time resided. In London he published his Tour of the American Lakes, his Letters of an American Gentleman, &c. But his Four Years in Great Britain, Religious State of the Country, Life of Henry Clay, &c., &c., have all been widely read in the United States."

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