of the
fifteenth century, and brought up, as Christine had been, at a
magnificent Court, it shows rare independence and breadth of thought
to have grasped and proclaimed with such firmness and clearness as is
displayed in her treatise the germ of the policy of all modern
civilised nations--that a middle-class is essential to bring into
touch those placed at the opposite extremes, the rich and the poor.

[31] Harley, 4431.

To Christine belongs an honour beyond that of having been a patriot
and a champion of her sex--the honour of having revealed Dante to
France.[32] Scattered up and down her writings are many allusions to
the _Divina Commedia_, showing how real a place it must have filled in
her soul's life. She especially recommends it for profitable study in
the place of the "hateful" _Romance of the Rose_, concerning which she
gave the warning to her son:--

Se bien veulx et chastement vivre,
De la Rose ne lis le livre.

[32] A. Farinelli, _Dante e la Francia_, vol. i. p. 192, 1908.

Like Dante, sad and lonely--"souvent seulete et pensive, regretant le
temps passe"--like him she also realised the thirst for knowledge as
an ever-present want of the soul, and that its ultimate perfection is
only to be attained by following after virtue and knowledge. Although,
as regards profundity, her conception of the world and of life cannot
be compared with that of her great prototype, or even with that of
such an one as St. Hildegarde, still she had read with unflagging
diligence a vast number of profane and ecclesiastical writers, and
seems to have been well versed in the varied knowledge of her time,
especially history. But whilst it is possible to criticise her
learning, tempered as this was by her character and the needs of her
day, it is at the same time possible to acknowledge that in spite of
flaws and an often over-elaborated setting, moral truth sparkles
gemlike throughout her writings. One of her biographers speaks of her
thus: "Her morale is so pure and so universally human that not only
does it remain true to-day, but it will retain imperishable value as
long as ever human society is based on a pure and healthy moral
foundation."

In her poem _Le Chemin de long Estude_--a title taken from Dante's
appeal to Virgil at the opening of the _Inferno_--Christine begins by
acknowledging her debt to the immortal poet, saying that much that she
has to tell has already been told by "Dante of Florence in