re
Was making the East laugh through all its span,
Veiling the Fish, that in its escort were
Turned to the right, I set my mind to scan
The other pole; and four stars met my gaze
Ne'er seen before, except by primal man
Heaven seemed rejoicing in their flaming rays."

The two poets looking to the north see Cato the Warder of Purgatory, his
face illuminated by the four stars, typical of the cardinal virtues,
Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. Is Dante's selection of
Cato, the pagan suicide, as the guardian of Christian Purgatory, to be
taken as an example of the broadmindedness of the poet who believes "so
wide arms hath goodness infinite, that it receives all who turn to it?"
Or is it an instance showing how the leaven of the old Roman spirit in
the poet--a spirit which justifies suicide, prevails with his profession
of Christianity which condemns the taking of one's life? Whatever be the
answer "Cato's taking his own life rather than renounce liberty is
symbolical of the soul, destroying all selfishness that it may attain
the light and freedom of spiritual life." In the poem Cato is
represented as challenging the poets as if they were fugitives from
Hell. When he is told that it is by divine decree that the pilgrims are
making the journey, he bids Virgil cleanse Dante with dew and gird him
with a rush and he concludes by saying: "then be not this way your
return, the sun which now is rising, will show you how to take the mount
at an easier ascent"--words whose spiritual sense would seem to be that
once the soul has turned to virtue, it must never go back to sin and in
its upward path to perfection it will be guided by the rays of divine
grace (the sun) whose enlightenment will make the ascent easier.

While lingering on the shore, undecided which way to turn, the poets see
a great marvel. Over the water dancing with sunlight comes a white boat
propelled by the white wings of an angel called the Divine Bird, red
with flame and bringing from the banks of the Tiber, the bosom of the
Church, over a hundred souls to begin their term in Purgatory. In
Charon's bark the reprobate souls fill the air with their imprecations;
in the angel-steered boat the spirits coming to Purgatory devoutly
chant: "When Israel went out of Egypt," the psalm so fittingly
descriptive of their own liberation from guilt and their coming into
peace. Here is the description of the scene:

"And lo! as when, upon the approach o