his poetic structures, his creations will appear not only
intelligible and natural, but unfold a treasure of thought and beauty
nowhere else to be found, while the poet himself will be shown to be not
only one of the greatest masters of thought and imagination, but one of
the noblest and loftiest minds to be met with in the history of letters"
(John Conway, Am. Cath. Quar. Review, April, 1892).

The editor of the English Quarterly Review (July, 1896, p. 41) while not
denying the real existence of Beatrice argues that she represents Faith,
and affirms that the story of Dante's love for her, a love wavering at
times, represents the conflict of Faith and Science. You will be
interested in seeing, as a curiosity of literature, how that author
attempts the translation into allegory of Dante's account of his first
meeting with Beatrice.

This is the translation--Dante speaking in the first person says: "At
the close of my ninth year I experienced strong impressions of religion.
This was the time of my Confirmation and my First Communion. I was
filled with reverence for the wondrous truths instilled into my mind by
those whom I loved best: and my whole being glowed with the roseate glow
of a first love. My feelings were rapturous yet constant; and from that
time I date the beginning of a New Life. From that time forward I was so
completely under the influence of this divine principle that my soul
was, as it were, espoused to heavenly love, and it was in the precepts
and ordinances of the Church that this passion found its proper
satisfaction. Often and often did it lead me to the congregation of the
faithful, where I had meetings with my youthful angel and these were so
gratifying that all through my boyhood I would frequently go in search
of a repetition of those pleasures and I perceived her so noble and
admirable in all her bearings, that of her might assuredly be said that
saying of Homer: 'She seemed no daughter of mortal man but of God.'"

We need not be surprised that there is such divergence of opinion among
critics as to the interpretation of Dante. He himself in The Banquet
(bk. II, ch. 15), written some years after his New Life, tells us that
there is a hidden meaning back of the literal interpretation of his
words. That is especially true of the Divine Comedy, as he writes to Can
Grande in explanation of the purpose of the poem. In the Paradiso he
bids this lacking in power of penetration to pierce the symbolism,