f art so perfect
that only in a few rare passages does beauty fall a sacrifice to
doctrine. The 'Divine Comedy' is indeed not less incomparable in its
beauty than in its vast compass, the variety of its interest, and in the
harmony of its form with its spirit. In his lectures 'On Translating
Homer' Mr. Arnold, speaking of the metre of 'Paradise Lost,' says:--"To
this metre, as used in the 'Paradise Lost,' our country owes the glory
of having produced one of the only two poetical works in the grand style
which are to be found in the modern languages; the 'Divine Comedy' of
Dante is the other." But Mr. Arnold does not point out the extraordinary
fact, in regard to the style of the 'Divine Comedy,' that this poem
stands at the beginning of modern literature, that there was no previous
modern standard of style, that the language was molded and the verse
invented by Dante; that he did not borrow his style from the ancients,
and that when he says to Virgil, "Thou art he from whom I took the fair
style that has done me honor," he meant only that he had learned from
him the principles of noble and adequate poetic expression. The style of
the 'Divine Comedy' is as different from that of the AEneid as it is from
that of 'Paradise Lost.'

There are few other works of man, perhaps there is no other, which
afford such evidence as the 'Divine Comedy' of uninterrupted consistency
of purpose, of sustained vigor of imagination, and of steady force of
character controlling alike the vagaries of the poetic temperament, the
wavering of human purpose, the fluctuation of human powers, and the
untowardness of circumstance. From beginning to end of this work of many
years there is no flagging of energy, no indication of weakness. The
shoulders, burdened by a task almost too great for mortal strength,
never tremble under their load.

The contrast between the inner and the outer life of Dante is one of the
most impressive pictures of human experience; the pain, the privation,
the humiliation of outward circumstance so bitter, so prolonged; the
joy, the fullness, the exaltation of inward condition so complete, the
achievement so great. Above all other poetry the 'Divine Comedy' is the
expression of high character, and of a manly nature of surpassing
breadth and tenderness of sympathy, of intensity of moral earnestness,
and elevation of purpose. One closes the narrative of Dante's life and
the study of his works with the conviction that he was no