as free will. He cannot excuse his evil deed on the ground of
necessity. Even in the face of planetary influence and of temptation
from within, by his evil inclinations, and from without by solicitation
of other agents man has still such discernment between good and evil and
such power to make choice freely, that moral judgment with him is free.
"Who hath been tried thereby and made perfect," says Holy Writ, "he
shall have glory everlasting. He that could have transgressed, and hath
not transgressed and could do evil things, and hath not done them."
(Eccli., XXXI, 10.)

Against this doctrine of free will the sociology, the philosophy and the
medical science of the present day contend with a theory which minimizes
man's accountability for sin if it does not wholly excuse him as the
victim of heredity, environment or society. Literature also, as
reflected not only in the Greek tragedies but in the writings of authors
from Shakespeare to Shaw portray the evil doer as the victim of fate or
determinism.

Against all such theories and views Dante appears as the fearless,
uncompromising champion of the doctrine of the greatness of man in the
exercise of the divine gift of Free Will. His own life, showing how he
had won victory over the forces of poverty and persecution, is symbolic
of the glorious truth he would teach; viz., that man, endowed with free
will and animated with the grace of God, is master of his destiny and
cannot be defeated even by principalities and powers. So he tells us,
"And free will which if it endure fatigue in the first battles with the
heavens, afterwards if it be well nurtured, conquers everything."
(Purg., XVI, 76.) He makes Beatrice testify to the supremacy of the
will: "The greatest gift which God in His bounty bestowed in creating
and that which He prizes most, was the freedom of will with which the
creatures that have intelligence--they all and they alone--were
endowed." (Cf. Purg., XVIII, 66-73.)

But such a distinctive endowment may be the the curse of man if he fails
to use it rightly. Like Job, Dante insists that life is a warfare.
Victory is possible only by the right exercise of the will enlightened
by God. Defeat is sure if the will embraces sin. To Dante sin is not a
mere vulgarity or the violation of a social convention or "a soft
infirmity of the blood." "Very hateful to his fervid heart and sincere
mind," says James Russell Lowell, "would have been the modern theory
which deals with