Led back from whence I make this voyage wide:
But why wert thou detain'd so tediously?"1
"No one hath done me wrong;" he then replied.
"If He who chooses when and whom to take,
To me this voyage ofttimes hath denied,
'Twas for His righteous will and pleasure's sake.2
But He for three months past has wafted o'er
All who the voyage wish'd with him to make.
Whence I, who had arrived upon that shore
Where her salt wave the sea to Tiber brings,
Kindly received, was left behind no more.
He for that port again has spread his wings :

100

For always gather there at Heaven's behest, Those whom no crime to Hell's dread river flings." 3 Then I; "If thee no recent law divest

Dante's canzoni to music, and "in whose company," says Landino, "Dante often refreshed his spirits, when wearied by severer studies." Milton, in his 8th sonnet, “To HENRY LAWES," has the following:

"Dante shall give Fame leave to set thee higher

Than his Casella, whom he wooed to sing,

Met in the milder shades of Purgatory."

Casella is supposed to have died some years previously. That he had not sooner arrived on the shores of Purgatory, he explains by stating that the conducting angel's refusal was in accordance with the will of heaven; but that now he was "taking the benefit of the act" by which Pope Boniface had established the Jubilee.

* The Divine Being, or the Conducting Angel. As in Genesis xviii., the language is applicable to either.

3 Dante, who consigns the author of the Jubilee to the bottomless pit (Inferno, xix. 53, 80), seems here to have had in view Rev. xviii. 4, " And I heard a voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."

Of use or memory of the amorous lay,

Which once could lull my passions all to rest, Be pleased therewith a little while, I pray,

To soothe my mind clogg'd with its earthly part, 110 Arriving here much wearied with the way."

Love, who holds converse with me in my heart;"1 With such soft accents he commenced the song, Whose tones within their sweetness yet impart. Myself, and my instructer, and the throng

Who with him were, appear'd as well content, As though to none could other cares belong. In fix'd attention to his notes we bent,

Listening; when, lo, that strict old man we hear Exclaiming, "What is this? What now is meant ? 120 Ye laggard souls, why stand ye idling here?

Run to the mountain; cast the scales aside Which to your eyes will not let God appear." As in a place with tares or corn supplied,

1 The first line of a Canzonet in praise of Beatrice in Dante's Convito. It consists of ninety lines. Hence it is no wonder that the soul of Cato, which never had much music in it, should have been scandalised at the conduct of the Shades, in delaying their journey upwards for a song! From its repeated mention by Dante (De Vulg. Eloq. ii. 6), it must have been a great favorite with him, especially when sung by Casella to his own music, as doubtless Dante had heard it. From its introduction here, however, we cannot doubt that in its real design it soared above the fleeting interest of an earthly attachment.

2 See Matt. xx. 6; Gen. xix. 17.

3 "See for every cloud that is spread over thy vision,

Which weakens thy mortal sight and reeking darkens around thee,

I will remove."-Eneid. ii. 604.

And there fell from his eyes as it had been scales, and he received sight."-Acts ix. 18.

The pigeons flock, their food collecting there,
Quiet, not showing their accustom❜d pride ;
If aught appears, the timid flock to scare,

At once they fly from where they feeding stood,
Because assaulted by a greater care.
So I beheld this newly-landed crowd;

Quitting the song they toward the hill-side paced,
Like one who flies, and yet knows not the road:
Nor was our own departure less in haste.

130

CANTO III.

THE ARGUMENT.

Dante, starting at his own shadow, is reassured by Virgil, who explains the reason why he himself projects no shadow on the ground. Finding no path to ascend the steep, they inquire of a party of Souls whom they meet, who are amazed at Dante's appearance. They direct the poets where to find a practicable path. With one of them Dante converses: this is Manfredi, king of Naples, who relates the particulars of his death in battle.

WHEN thus the Shades with unexpected flight,

Their devious way pursuing through the plain,
Turn'd to the mountain, thither urged aright;1
I to my faithful feere myself restrain :

For without him how could I speed my course?
How could I hope the mountain-top to gain?
To me he seem'd to feel some self-remorse.2
O faithful conscience, delicately clear,

1

Of how small fault feel'st thou the biting force!

By Cato, in the preceding canto. Right reason should prompt men to repent, and make satisfaction for the wrongs which they have committed.

2

Virgil smarts under Cato's reproach for delay, having so often blamed it in Dante.

Soon as his feet, left off, in his career,

That haste which strips each act of decency,1
My mind which was at first restrain'd by fear,
Its purpose now enlarged as eagerly :

And I against the mountain turn'd my gaze,
Where heaven-ward it rose highest from the sea.
The sun all red which did behind me blaze,
Before was broken, and my form portray'd,
Just as it intercepted there his rays.
Starting I turn'd me on one side, afraid

That I had been forsaken, when I spied

The ground before with but my single shade.

Why still distrustful," my consoler cried;

2

10

20

As, turn'd quite round, his looks on me he bent; "Think'st thou I am not with thee-still thy guide?

1 "For joy, indeed, O dearest, I'm compell'd,

Forgetting decency, to speed me hither."

SOPHOCLES, Electra, 877.

Among other gestures to be avoided, Cicero reckons "too much haste in walking, so as to produce quick breathing, a flushed countenance, and difficulty of speaking."-De officiis, i. 36. And Horace says of Tigellius, "He would often run as if pursued by an enemy."-Sat. i. 3.

2 Now, for the first time since Dante entered into "the valley of the dolorous abyss," the Sun shines on his path. He is therefore startled at seeing no shadow but his own projected on the ground, until reminded that the incorporeal presence of his guide is necessarily shadowless.

The negroes imported into the West Indies brought from Africa the belief, that a living man could be deprived of his shadow by magical influence, but that such privation would be fatal. At the trial of a notorious Obeah-man, one of the witnesses was asked, "Do you know the prisoner to be an Obeah-man ?" "Ees, massa, shadow-catcher, true." "What do you mean by a Shadow-catcher?” "Him ha coffin" (a little coffin was here produced), "him set for catch dem shadow." "What shadow do you mean ?" "When