the coal, quivering in the lightning,
flashing in the topaz and the ruby, veiled behind the pure alabaster,
mellowed and clouding itself in the pearl-light contrasted with shadow,
shading off and copying itself in the double rainbow like voice and
echo--light seen within light--light from every source and in all its
shapes illuminates, irradiates, gives glory to the Commedia.... And when
he (Dante) rises beyond the regions of earthly day, light, simple and
unalloyed, unshadowed and eternal, lifts the creations of his thought
above all affinity to time and matter; light never fails him, as the
expression of the gradations of bliss; never reappears the same, never
refuses the new shapes of his invention, never becomes confused or dim,
though it is seldom thrown into distinct figure and still more seldom
colored."

In making light such a central feature of Heaven and symbolically in
identifying light with God and the angels and the blessed, Dante is only
expressing--but expressing beautifully and supremely--the thought which
pagan oracles proclaimed and Holy Writ and the Church made known. From
the earliest ages the sun which vivifies and illuminates the world was
regarded by many nations as the symbol of the Deity--and by still other
nations it was adored. The psalmist, addressing God, says: "Thou art
clothed with light as with a garment." (Ps., CIII, 2.) St. Paul declares
that the Lord of Lords "inhabiteth light inaccessible." (1 Tim., VI,
16.) The Seer of Patmos tells us that the heavenly Jerusalem has no need
of the light of the sun and the moon to shine upon it, "for the glory of
God hath enlightened it and the Lamb is the lamp thereof." (Apoc., XX,
23.) "I am the light of the world," declares Christ, and with that
revelation ringing in his ears the Beloved Disciple does not hesitate to
say: "and this is the declaration which we have heard--that God is
light." (I John, I, 5.) In narrating his vision of Heaven, Ezechial
compares the light emanating from and enveloping the Deity, to fire. "I
saw the likeness as of the appearance of fire, as the appearance of
brightness." (XXIV, 17.) Moses on the mountain saw the Lord in the midst
of fire, and on another mountain Christ, "the brightness of his Father's
glory was transfigured before his apostles and his face did shine as the
Sun and his garments became shining or glittering." (Matt., XVII, 2.)
Small wonder then that the Nicaean creed declares that Christ is "God of
God, L