the genius of Dante does not fail him in
his daring undertaking, and this is the more remarkable because instead
of selecting as a symbol something infinitely large, he choses something
atomically small. In the ninth Heaven surrounded by the nine orders of
pure spirits God is represented "as an indivisible atomic Point
radiating light and symbolizing the unity of the Divinity as a fitting
prelude to the more intimate vision of the Blessed Trinity which will be
vouchsafed in the Empyrean." "A Point I saw that darted light so sharp
no lid unclosing may bear up against its keenness. On that Point depend
the heavens and the whole of nature" (XXXVIII, 16).

On the appropriateness of this symbol Ozanam makes this interesting
comment: "God reveals Himself as necessarily indivisible and
consequently incapable of having ascribed to Him the abstraction of
quantity and quality by which we know creatures: indefinable, because
every definition is an analysis which decomposes the subject defined;
incomparable because there are no terms to institute a comparison; so
that one may say, giving the words an oblique meaning, that He is
infinitely little, that He is nothing. But on the other hand, that which
is without extension, moves without resistance; that which is not to be
grasped, cannot be contained; that which can be enclosed within no
limits, either actual or logical is by that very fact limitless. The
infinitely little is then also the infinitely great and we may say that
it is all." The indivisible atomic Point of intensest light as a symbol
of God is indeed a sublime conception of faith and genius that appeals
equally to the child, the philosopher and the mystic.

The supreme thing still necessary for the consummation of Dante's
pilgrimage is the Beatific Vision of God. That occurs in the Empyrean
where symbol gives way to reality, where the Elect are seen no longer in
forms veiled in light but in the glorified semblance of their earthly
bodies, where contemplation gives direct vision of God in His essence.
How will the poet, while still in the flesh, endure this vision of the
Infinite, Incomprehensible Eternal God? Prepared as he has been by the
experiences of the nine Heavens, he has still further need of
supernatural assistance. That is now given to him by means of a flash
wrapping him in a garment of light, which blinds him and then
illuminates his sight and intellect and enables him to see a more
complete foreshadowing o