nation of his apparent cruelty
undoubtedly lies in the fact that the poet would teach us that character
is influenced by environment. In the circle of wrath, he is wrathful, in
the pit of traitors he is false. Then we are to recall that Dante
undoubtedly laid to heart Virgil's reproof, when he wept at the sad
punishment of the soothsayers: 'Who is more wicked than he who feels
compassion at the Divine Judgment.' Passionate love of God, Dante holds,
implies passionate hatred of God's enemies. That is a thought expressed
by the Psalmist. 'Lord, have I not hated them that hate thee and pined
away because of thy enemies? I have hated them with a perfect hatred and
they are become enemies to me' (CXXXVIII, 21). So it may be said that
Dante has the spirit of the psalmist and seeks to love, as God loves,
and to hate as God hates."

Whether that explanation satisfy my readers or not, there is another
side to Dante's character that is most attractive. "Dowered with the
hate of hate, the scorn of scorn," he was a paradox,--gentle and tender.
Failure to see this phase of Dante's nature led Frederick Schlegel to
declare that Dante's "chief defect is the want of gentle feelings"--a
statement that called forth this exclamation from Lord Byron: "Of gentle
feelings. And Francesca of Rimini and the father's feelings in Ugolino
and Beatrice and the Pia! Why there is a gentleness in Dante above all
gentleness when he is tender!"

Let us see some examples of this tender quality in our poet. Only one
endowed with gentleness and beauty of soul, could have conceived a
Purgatory "not hot with sulphurous flames" remarks Dinsmore, "but
healing the wounded spirit with the light of shimmering sea, the glories
of morning, the perfume of flowers, the touch of angels, the living
forms of art and the sweet strains of music."

Only a man of warm-heartedness and delicate susceptibility at the sight
of a row of souls, temporarily blinded, would have been touched to such
an extent that he would be filled with anxiety lest in looking upon them
and silently passing them by who could not return his gaze, he would
show them some discourtesy.

"It were a wrong, methought, to pass and look
On others, yet myself, the while unseen,
To my sage counsel therefore did I turn."
(Purg. XIII,73)

Gentleness also reveals itself in lovely lines wherein the poet speaks
of the relations of parent and child. He tells us, for instance, how

"An infan