PRELIMINARY NOTE ACCORDING to the Ptolemaic system, which was accepted from antiquity down to the time of Copernicus, the earth is a solid, motionless sphere in the centre of the universe. Around it revolve nine transparent hollow spheres, each within its outside neighbor up to the ninth, the Primum Mobile; this imparts its movement to the others and constitutes the frontier of the material world. The eighth heaven carries with it all the fixed stars. Each of those below it contains one heavenly body: the seventh, Saturn; the sixth, Jupiter; the fifth, Mars; the fourth, the Sun; the third, Venus; the second, Mercury; the first, the Moon. They all circle around the earth together, from east to west, once in twenty-four hours. But each heaven except the ninth has, besides, an independent motion of its own, so that it is really moving in a compound curve, made up of two or more different circular revolutions; for instance, the special revolution of the moon is accomplished in a month; that of the sun, in a year. By these sets of motions, and an elaborate system of computation by epicycles, the shifting positions of the sun, moon, and stars were accurately accounted for. Outside the whole universe of matter is the spiritual Paradise, the Empyrean, the true abode of God, the angels, and the blest. The earth is surrounded by air, and between this air and the heaven of the moon is a sphere of fire, toward which all the fire on earth is striving to return. All natural operations on earth are controlled by the movements of the spheres, which are directed by nine orders of angels, or Heavenly Intelligences, created by God for this office.1 We have seen that two of the four elements, fire and air, are between the moon and our globe; this body itself consists of the other two, water and earth. The four are arranged in the order of their lightness and their purity. Dante believed the earth to be 1 See diagrams on p. vi. Cf. Moore, III, 1. perfectly spherical and about 20,000 miles in circumference. The continents are all grouped on one side, the Hemisphere of Land, which contains not only Europe, Asia, Africa, and some islands, but also the Mediterranean and a part of the great ocean; at the exact centre of this hemisphere is Jerusalem. On the other side is the Hemisphere of Water, in which is no land, except (according to Dante's idea) the mountainous Island of Purgatory, situated precisely opposite Jerusalem. At the top of the mountain of Purgatory is the Garden of Eden. The greater part of the land on the earth's surface is north of the equator, the greater part of the water is south; but the Hemispheres of Land and Water by no means coincide with the northern and southern hemispheres. At the eastern extremity of the Hemisphere of Land is the River Ganges, at the western edge are the Straits of Gibraltar. The Mediterranean was thought to extend over 90°, or a quarter of the earth's circumference; Italy, midway between Gibraltar and Jerusalem, is therefore 45°, or three hours, from each.1 Hell is a vast cavity in the form of an inverted cone, whose apex is at the centre of the earth and whose circular base lies beneath the Hemisphere of Land, from which it is shut off by a crust; it extends, apparently, from Italy to mid-Asia. The round declivity of the cavern is broken into nine steps, each of which runs all the way around it; they are of unequal width and separated by cliffs of varying height and steepness. Two enormous precipices divide it roughly into three horizontal sections. A huge wall, circling around one of the terraces, severs the outermost section from the other two, making an Upper and a Lower Hell; the latter is called the City of Dis. On each of the steps is punished some particular kind of sin: in the Upper Hell, the sins of Incontinence, due to lack of selfcontrol; in the Lower Hell, the sins of Violence and Fraud, due respectively to Bestiality and Malice. Violence occupies the middle section, Fraud the lowest. Four steps, or circles, are devoted 2 1 See diagrams on p. vi. Cf. Moore, III, 109. 2 The term 'Bestiality' is taken from Aristotle, but is not used in the Aristotelian sense: its meaning is extended and generalized. to the four kinds of Incontinence - lust, gluttony, avarice (and prodigality), anger. One circle suffices for Bestiality, but it is divided into three parts, according to the object of the violence: that object may be one's neighbor, one's self, or God. Malice occupies two circles: in the first are the fraudulent, those who deceived persons not bound to them by any special ties; in the second are the traitors, destroyers of their kinsfolk, their countrymen, their guests, or their benefactors. This last circle forms the very floor of Hell; it is a lake of ice at the bottom of a pit; embedded in the middle, at the centre of the earth, is Satan, in whose three mouths are the three arch-traitors, Judas, Brutus, and Cassius. Outside of this general scheme, but within Hell, are three regions inhabited respectively by the souls of sluggards and time-servers, those who were neither good nor bad; the souls of unbaptized children and virtuous pagans; and the souls of heretics. All three are circles, like those mentioned. The first, sometimes called the Antinferno, is a vestibule, just inside the entrance, but outside the River Acheron. The second, the Limbus, is within the encircling Acheron, at a lower level than the Vestibule, and forms the first of the nine steps. The third, which constitutes the sixth circle, lies close within the walls of the City of Dis, but is separated from the rest of the Lower Hell by a mighty precipice. The souls in the nether world are, then, arranged in this order: SLUGGISH; unbaptized; lustful, gluttonous, avaricious (and prodigal), wrathful; heretical; violent; fraudulent, treacherous. The sluggish, the unbaptized, and the heretical lie outside the three great classes — Incontinence, Violence, Fraud. The sluggish are in the Vestibule; all the others are in the nine circles. The punishments vary according to the sins, each being a retaliation for the offence. It must not be forgotten, however, that allegorically the torments represent the sins themselves. 'Wherewith a man sinneth, by the same also shall he be punished' (Wisdom xi, 16). Dante, under the guidance of Reason, ransacks the human heart and learns to know wickedness as it really is, stripped of the false semblance of good. Thus, for instance, the furious blast that eternally wafts the carnal sinners symbolizes irresistible passion; |