luxuriant, its
flowers endless and fragrant, its trees, melodious with birds, rustle
with the balmy wind, its waters serve to irrigate the garden as well as
to help the soul. These waters, the rivers Lethe and Eunoe, are produced
from heavenly sources and have miraculous powers. The former removes the
memory of sin; the latter restores the recollection of virtuous deeds, a
poetical way of expressing the Catholic dogma, that with the revival of
grace in the heart of the converted sinner comes back the merit that had
been acquired by moral acts.

The problem which Dante sets out to solve in his Purgatory is this:
Assuming that the sinner has been baptized, how can he break his
shackles and attain to the liberty of the children of God? The literal
narrative of Dante's Purgatory presupposing that the soul at the hour of
death is in the state of grace, now shows us that soul working towards
perfection by way of expiation for unforgiven venial sin and for the
temporal punishment due to sin. It is the only way by which it can again
attain its pristine dignity. "And to his dignity he never returns," says
Dante, "unless where sin makes void, he fill up for evil pleasures just
penalties."

The rule holds good, also, for salvation in this world. The thin veil of
allegory enables us to penetrate Dante's teaching that this life also is
a Purgatory, and here, too, we may cast off the defilement of sin by
means of repentance and expiation. But first the soul must be girt with
the rush of humility, and have perfect contrition represented by its
being washed with the dew, the moisture that descends from Heaven. To
Virgil (Reason guided by Heaven) says Cato (the symbol of Liberty), "Go,
then, and see that thou gird this man with a smooth rush and that thou
wash his face (with dew) so that thou efface from it all foulness, for
it would not be fitting to go into the presence of the first Minister,
who is of those of Paradise, with eyes dimmed by any mist." (1, 95.)

But even if the soul, by perfect contrition, is freed from its guilt of
mortal sin, it must according to the mind of Christ, who instituted the
sacrament of Penance for the remission of sin, submit to the power of
the keys committed to the priesthood and that will be the more necessary
if its contrition is imperfect. While perfect contrition without the
sacrament of Penance may remit sin, if the supernatural motive of sorrow
is not the love of God, but a motive less worthy,