that it was at least
mainly written between 1307 and 1310. Its design was of large scope. It
was to be composed of fifteen parts or treatises; but of these only four
were completed, and such is their character both as regards their
exhibition of the poet's nature and their exposition of the multifarious
topics of philosophy, of science, and of morals treated in them, that
the student of Dante and of mediaeval thought cannot but feel a deep
regret at the failure of the poet to carry his undertaking to its
intended close. But though the work is imperfect as a whole, each of its
four parts is complete and practically independent in itself.

Dante's object in the book was twofold. His opening words are a
translation of what Matthew Arnold calls "that buoyant and immortal
sentence with which Aristotle begins his Metaphysics,"--"All mankind
naturally desire knowledge." But few can attain to what is desired by
all, and innumerable are they who live always famished for want of this
food. "Oh, blessed are the few who sit at that table where the bread of
the angels is eaten, and wretched they who have food in common with the
herds." "I, therefore, who do not sit at the blessed table, but having
fled from the pasture of the crowd, gather up at the feet of those who
sit at it what falls from them, and through the sweetness I taste in
that which little by little I pick up, know the wretched life of those
whom I have left behind me, and moved with pity for them, not forgetting
myself, have reserved something for these wretched ones." These crumbs
were the substance of the banquet which he proposed to spread for them.
It was to have fourteen courses, and each of these courses was to have
for its principal viand a canzone of which the subject should be Love
and Virtue, and the bread served with each course was to be the
exposition of these poems,--poems which for want of this exposition lay
under the shadow of obscurity, so that by many their beauty was more
esteemed than their goodness. They were in appearance mere poems of
love, but under this aspect they concealed their true meaning, for the
lady of his love was none other than Philosophy herself, and not
sensual passion but virtue was their moving cause. The fear of reproach
to which this misinterpretation might give occasion, and the desire to
impart teaching which others could not give, were the two motives of his
work.

There is much in the method and style of the 'Convito' wh