that cowardice has often made men relinquish
honorable enterprises, and encourages him by stating that Beatrice,
moved by love, forsook her place in heaven to bid him serve as Dante's
guide. He adds that when he wondered how she could leave, even for a
moment, the heavenly abode, she explained that the Virgin Mary sent
Lucia, to bid her rescue the man who had loved her ever since she was
a child. Like a flower revived after a chilly night by the warmth of
the sun, Dante, invigorated by these words, intimates his readiness to
follow Virgil.

_Canto III._ The two travellers, passing through a wood, reach a gate,
above which Dante perceives this inscription:

"Through me you pass into the city of woe:
Through me you pass into eternal pain:
Through me among the people lost for aye.
Justice the founder of my fabric moved:
To rear me was the task of power divine,
Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.
Before me things create were none, save things
Eternal, and eternal I endure.
All hope abandon, ye who enter here."[16]

Unable to grasp its meaning, Dante begs Virgil to interpret, and
learns they are about to descend into Hades. Having visited this place
before, Virgil boldly leads Dante through this portal into an
ante-hell region, where sighs, lamentations, and groans pulse through
the starless air. Shuddering with horror, Dante inquires what it all
means, only to be told that the souls "who lived without praise or
blame," as well as the angels who remained neutral during the war in
heaven, are confined in this place, since Paradise, Purgatory, and
Inferno equally refuse to harbor them and death never visits them.

While he is speaking, a long train of these unfortunate spirits, stung
by gadflies, sweeps past them, and in their ranks Dante recognizes the
shade of Pope Celestine V, who, "through cowardice made the grand
renunciation,"--i.e., abdicated his office at the end of five months,
simply because he lacked courage to face the task intrusted to him.

Passing through these spirits with downcast eyes, Dante reaches
Acheron,--the river of death,--where he sees, steering toward them,
the ferry-man Charon, whose eyes are like fiery wheels and who marvels
at beholding a living man among the shades. When Charon grimly orders
Dante back to earth, Virgil silences him with the brief statement: "so
'tis will'd where will and power are one." So, without further
objection, Charon allows them to enter his skif