eets home!"--"Hoist away, sir!" is bawled
from aloft. "Overhaul your clew-lines!" shouts the mate. "Ay, ay, sir!
all clear!" "Taut leech! belay! Well the lee brace; haul taut to
windward,"--and the royals were set. These brought us up again; but the
wind continuing light, the California set hers, and it was soon evident
that she was walking away from us. Our captain then hailed and said that
he should keep off to his course; adding, "She isn't the Alert now. If I
had her in your trim she would have been out of sight by this time."
This was good-naturedly answered from the California, and she braced
sharp up, and stood close upon the wind up the coast; while we squared
away our yards, and stood before the wind to the south-southwest. The
California's crew manned her weather rigging, waved their hats in the
air, and gave us three hearty cheers, which we answered as heartily, and
the customary single cheer came back to us from over the water. She
stood on her way, doomed to eighteen months' or two years' hard service
upon that hated coast; while we were making our way home, to which every
hour and every mile was bringing us nearer.

DANTE

(1265-1321)

BY CHARLES ELIOT NORTON

[Illustration: DANTE]

I

To acquire a love for the best poetry, and a just understanding of it,
is the chief end of the study of literature; for it is by means of
poetry that the imagination is quickened, nurtured, and invigorated, and
it is only through the exercise of his imagination that man can live a
life that is in a true sense worth living. For it is the imagination
which lifts him from the petty, transient, and physical interests that
engross the greater part of his time and thoughts in self-regarding
pursuits, to the large, permanent, and spiritual interests that ennoble
his nature, and transform him from a solitary individual into a member
of the brotherhood of the human race.

In the poet the imagination works more powerfully and consistently than
in other men, and thus qualifies him to become the teacher and inspirer
of his fellows. He sees men, by its means, more clearly than they see
themselves; he discloses them to themselves, and reveals to them their
own dim ideals. He becomes the interpreter of his age to itself; and not
merely of his own age is he the interpreter, but of man to man in all
ages. For change as the world may in outward aspect, with the rise and
fall of empires,--change as men may, from generation to