"O how compassion

Who lent me

Who hast so sooner

7.) A similar passage is found in the e in whose breast springs thought to is intent is ever frustrated-the force impeding:" and in Shakspeare: doth make cowards of us all; tive hue of resolution

with the pale cast of thought,

of great pith and moment rd their currents turn aside, ame of action."-Hamlet.

"says Ugo Foscolo, "that the two readnd "mondo" both came from the pen of

would have inclined him to pity those whom Divine Justice had condemned. "The soul of the poet was fraught even to redundance with gentle feelings."-Ugo Foscolo. Edinburgh Review, vol. xxx.

Page 14. (Line 13.) Anchises, the Father of Eneas-whose journey to the shades below is described by Virgil. (18.) The establishment of the Roman Empire-of which Æneas is called the Father. Dante here expresses his reverence for the "holy place," where, by divine authority, St. Peter had established the Papal See. Eneas and St. Peter are here prominently brought forward, as originators of the two great principles advocated by Dante in his poem, viz, an united Empire, and an universal Religion. Æneas was the founder of the line of the Cæsars,-St. Peter of the Papal See,-to which the establishment of the Roman Empire is considered as subservient. Thus one object of Dante was, to continue the political spirit of the Roman Empire in the person of the German Emperors, whom he wished to bring back to Rome, not as being Germans, but as heirs of the Cæsars:-the other, to restore to the See of Rome its original and apostolic purity, by stripping it of all that temporal power and wealth which had corrupted and venalized the whole Church. See Inferno xix. 105; Purgatorio vi. 112; xvi. 106 to 114, and 127 to 133; Par. xxvii. 22, 40, 55. (27.) This line was originally rendered "And laid the basis of the Papal throne." As the reason for its alteration may not appear evident, it may be well to observe, with the view of showing the necessity of the strictest fidelity in translating Dante, that he never recognises the Papal Throne, and speaks only of the "Papal Mantle." (28.) St. Paul. Dante maintained the two grand ideas of Unity in the Church, and Unity in the State, keeping them both distinct. See Par. xxiv. 151; xxv. 2—55.

Page 15. (Lines 37-47.) A similar passage is found in the Purgatorio, v. 16, "He in whose breast springs thought to thought succeeding, of his intent is ever frustrated—the force of one, the other's force impeding:" and in Shakspeare: "Thus conscience doth make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn aside,

And lose the name of action."-Hamlet.

(60.) "It is probable," says Ugo Foscolo, "that the two readings here "moto" and "mondo" both came from the pen of Dante."

Page 17. (Line 94.) Divine Mercy. (97.) Heavenly Grace, supposed to have been St. Lucia the Martyr. (107.) "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the floods of ungodly men made me afraid.”—Psalm xviii. 4, From this passage Milton has taken his description of the abyss-" Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild."-Paradise Lost, vii. 212.

Page 18. (Line 115.) "Lacrymis oculos suffusa nitentes."En. i. 228. (121.) These words are used by Ananias in addressing St. Paul. "And now why tarriest thou?”—Acts, xxii. (125.) Mercy, Grace, and Wisdom.

CANTO III.

ARGUMENT.

INSCRIPTION upon the gate of Hell. Dante enters-beholds spirits, who, having lived in a state of indifference both to good and evil, are assigned the same portion as the neutral angels. The river Acheron-A blast of lightning-Dante falls into a swoon.

"THROUGH me ye enter the abode of woe:

Through me to endless sorrow are ye brought: Through me amid the souls accurst ye go. Justice did first my lofty Maker move;

By Power Almighty was my fabric wrought, By highest Wisdom, and by Primal Love. Ere I was form'd, no things created were,

Save those eternal-I eternal last:

All hope abandon-ye who enter here." These words, inscribed in colour dark, I saw High on the summit of a portal vast;

Whereat I cried: "O master! with deep awe

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