than the framework of his
unimitated picture! It is only this mechanical part of his sublime
conceptions that we can pretend to have discovered; other poets might
have adopted these "Visions;" but we should have had no "Divina
Commedia." Mr. Gary has finely observed of these pretended origins of
Dante's genius, although Mr. Gary knew only the Vision of Alberico, "It
is the scale of magnificence on which this conception was framed, and
the wonderful development of it in all its parts, that may justly
entitle our poet to rank among the few minds to whom the power of a
great creative faculty can be ascribed." Milton might originally have
sought the seminal hint of his great work from a sort of Italian
mystery. In the words of Dante himself,

Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda.
_Il Paradiso_, Can. i.

----From a small spark
Great flame hath risen.
CARY.

After all, Dante has said in a letter, "I found the ORIGINAL of MY HELL
in THE WORLD which we inhabit;" and he said a greater truth than some
literary antiquaries can always comprehend![283]

OF A HISTORY OF EVENTS WHICH HAVE NOT HAPPENED.

Such a title might serve for a work of not incurious nor unphilosophical
speculation, which might enlarge our general views of human affairs, and
assist our comprehension of those events which are enrolled on the
registers of history. The scheme of Providence is carrying oil sublunary
events, by means inscrutable to us,

A mighty maze, but not without a plan!

Some mortals have recently written history, and "Lectures on History,"
who presume to explain the great scene of human affairs, affecting the
same familiarity with the designs of Providence as with the events which
they compile from human authorities. Every party discovers in the events
which at first were adverse to their own cause but finally terminate in
their favour, that Providence had used a peculiar and particular
interference; this is a source of human error and intolerant prejudice.
The Jesuit Mariana, exulting over the destruction of the kingdom and
nation of the Goths in Spain, observes, that "It was by a particular
providence that out of their ashes might rise _a new and holy Spain, to
be the bulwark of the catholic religion_;" and unquestionably he would
have adduced as proofs of this "holy Spain" the establishment of the
Inquisition, and the dark idolatrous bigotry of that hood