Dante Interpreted; A Brief Summary of the Life, Times, and Character of Dante

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1899. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE three books of Dante's great work are closely connected with each other. Before we can understand this connection thoroughly, it is necessary to consider that according to the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which was believed to be the true system in Dante's day, the earth was the centre of the universe, and the sun and planets revolved round this centre. The Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso were situated within the area of this system. The old fable is that when Satan was cast out from heaven he fell to earth, the earth recoiled from contact with the foul fiend, and a hollow cavern, passing through the earth's centre, was produced by this recoil. This cavern with its nine circles was Hell. At the extreme bottom of this pit the earth bulged out into a mountain, the Mount of Purgatory, on the summit of which was the Earthly Paradise. Beyond this hill were different circles of Heaven, the circle of the Moon, of Venus, of Mars, and the remaining planets, inhabited by the blessed, and beyond all was the Empyrean, the seat of God's visible presence. This is a brief outline of Dante's idea of the universe. The subject of the present chapter is the poet's description of the lowest of all divisions of the unseen world. For it is of the unseen world that Dante has written, that unseen world which he seems to intimate is the only real world, stretching as it does through all space, and occupying all heaven and earth, and extending its frontiers from the pit of hell to the throne of God. Dante in his poem finds himself in the middle of life's path, i. e., when he is just thirty-five years old, in a dark and tangled wood. Terror and anxiety oppress him, and he can find no way to reach the mountain heights which he sees just illuminated by the breaking dawn, fo...