gh vacancy on the
shoulders of chimeras, and lifted through upper heaven in the grasp of
its spirits; but yet I do not remember that he ever expresses any
positive _wish_ on such matters, except for a boat.

[I] Prologue to _Peter Bell_.

[J] _In Memoriam_, ci.

"Guido, I wish that Lapo, thou, and I,
Led by some strong enchantment, might ascend
A magic ship, whose charmed sails should fly
With winds at will where'er our thoughts might wend,
So that no change nor any evil chance
Should mar our joyous voyage; but it might be
That even satiety should still enhance
Between our souls their strict community:
And that the bounteous wizard then would place
Vanna and Bice, and our Lapo's love,
Companions of our wandering, and would grace
With passionate talk, wherever we might rove,
Our time, and each were as content and free
As I believe that thou and I should be."

And of all the descriptions of motion in the _Divina Commedia_, I do not
think there is another quite so fine as that in which Dante has
glorified the old fable of Charon by giving a boat also to the bright
sea which surrounds the mountain of Purgatory, bearing the redeemed
souls to their place of trial; only an angel is now the pilot, and there
is no stroke of laboring oar, for his wings are the sails.

"My preceptor silent yet
Stood, while the brightness that we first discerned
Opened the form of wings: then, when he knew
The pilot, cried aloud, 'Down, down; bend low
Thy knees; behold God's angel: fold thy hands:
Now shalt thou see true ministers indeed.
Lo! how all human means he sets at nought;
So that nor oar he needs, nor other sail
Except his wings, between such distant shores.
Lo! how straight up to heaven he holds them reared,
Winnowing the air with those eternal plumes,
That not like mortal hairs fall off or change.'

"As more and more toward us came, more bright
Appeared the bird of God, nor could the eye
Endure his splendor near: I mine bent down.
He drove ashore in a small bark so swift
And light, that in its course no wave it drank.
The heavenly steersman at the prow was seen,
Visibly written blessed in his looks.
Within, a hundred spirits and more there sat."

I have given this passage at length, because it seems to me that Dante's
most inventive adaptat