Just now she said, 'Proceed, the gate is there."" 90 "And may her powerful aid your steps attend:"

The courteous warder thus his talk renew'd:

"So then advance, and these our steps ascend."
To them we came: the stair which lowest stood
Was marble white, so polish'd and so terse,
That I my frame therein distinctly view'd.
The second was more deeply dyed than perse,
Form'd of a rock half-burnt of rugged grain,
Crack'd right across both lengthways and traverse.
The third, whose mass the other two sustain

Above them, seem'd a flaming porphyry,
Red as the blood which rushes from a vein.1
On this God's angel placed both feet, and he
Sat o'er the threshold of that avenue,

His throne a rock of diamond seem'd to me.
Me with good will my leader upwards drew
By the three stairs, and said, "Make thy request
Humbly, that he the lock would now undo.”
Devout I fell before those footsteps blest,
Praying he would in mercy let me in.
But first I smote three times upon my breast.2
Then on my brow he traced the signs of sin

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With his sword's point-that is to say, seven P's ;3

1 The three stairs may mystically mean, Conviction of the Conscience, Contrition, or sorrow for sin, and Faith in Christ's Atoning Sacrifice. Thus Milton, describing the gate of heaven, says, "Each step mysteriously was meant."-P. Lost, iii. 516.

2 "The publican. . . . smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner."-Luke xviii. 13.

3 The seven P's indicate the seven deadly sins (Peccata), Pride, Envy, Anger, Sloth, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lechery.

And said, "Mind, wash these wounds when thou'rt Ashes or earth when dug up dry, agrees

In colour with the vestment he had on: .1 And from beneath it he drew forth two keys, One was composed of gold, of silver one :2

[within."

First the white key, and then the yellow, sped So with the door, I was content anon. "Whenever one of these two keys," he said, "Fails, or not rightly through the lock revolves, This passage will not open to your tread. Though costlier one, the other more involves

The need of art and skill, ere 'twill complete The opening, for 'tis this the knot resolves. From Peter hold I them, who said 'twas meet, Rather than wrongly keep it closed, I more Should men admit, if suppliant at my feet."s

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1 "Ille nuntius pœnitentiæ ;""The Angel of Penitence."HERME Pastor, Lib. ii. Proem. "I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."-Job xlii. 6.

2 "The Golden Key," says Thomas Aquinas, "is typical of the power to open, and the Silver Key of the knowledge to whom to open."-Summa 3, Suppl. xvii. 3.

"The Pilot of the Galilean lake;

Two massy keys he bore of metals twain,
The golden opes, the iron shuts amain.”-

MILTON'S Lycidas, 109—11.

The golden key, according to Rosetti, symbolises the literal or Catholic sense of the Trilogy, the most valuable, because it screened the author from the tender mercies of the Inquisition. The silver key, supplied to the initiated few, furnished the allegorical or figurative meaning, and therefore was the most difficult, yet by it the secret and real intention of the poet alone could be revealed. Disquisitions, ch. xvii.

3 See 1 Peter v. 1-6.

He push'd the wicket of the sacred door.1

"Enter," he said, "but mind, who on this ground Look back, must back again their path explore."" And when upon their hinges had swung round The brazen pivots of that sacred ward, The metal ponderous and of harshest sound, Not with such clang the steep Tarpeian roar'd,3 When from it was removed the good tribune, Metellus, for its treasures unrestored.4

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The reader will be reminded here of the "Wicket-gate," in BUNYAN'S Pilgrim's Progress.

2 See Gen. xix. 17; Luke ix. 62.

3 "Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death."

SHAKSPEARE, Coriolanus, Act iii. Sc. iii.

Metellus the tribune opposing Cæsar's taking money out of the public treasury, alleged some laws against it. Cæsar said, "Arms and laws do not flourish together. If you are not pleased with what I am about, you have nothing to do but to withdraw : indeed, war will not bear much liberty of speech. In saying this, I wave my own right; for you, and all whom I found exciting a spirit of faction against me, are at my disposal." He then approached the doors of the treasury, and as the keys were not produced, he sent for workmen to break them open. Again Metellus opposed him, and some praised his firmness; but Cæsar, elevating his voice, threatened to put him to death, if he gave him any further trouble. "And, young man," said he, "you are aware that this is harder for me to say than to do." Metellus, terrified with this menace, retired, and Cæsar was then easily and readily supplied with everything necessary for the war.—PLUTARCH, Life of Cæsar. Lucan says, the public treasury alluded to was the Temple of Saturn; and adds ;—

"When Metellus was led away the temple was immediately opened,
Then the Tarpeian rock with a mighty din resounded
From the unfolding gates; and the wealth long hoarded,
Untouch'd for many years by the Roman people,

Was brought forth from the recesses of the temple."—Phars. iii. 153.

At the first crash I listening turn'd, and soon
The Te Deum laudamus1 heard ascending,

In a mix'd voice, it seem'd, to some sweet tune.
The strains I heard were to my bosom sending

Emotion such as is the raptured mood2

Felt when the chant is with the organ3 blending, Whose words now are-and now not-understood.

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1 This well-known and magnificent hymn has been ascribed to different authors. The earliest known allusion to its existence is in the Rule of Cæsarius, Bishop of Arles, who lived in the fifth century. It is found in the Breviary of Sarum, and in that of Pius V., as well as in the English Liturgy. See PALMER'S Origines Liturgica. Oxford, 1832.

Te Deum sung on Dante's entering the gates of penitence, is in allusion to Luke xv. 10, "There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."

2 "That strain I heard was of a higher mood.".

MILTON'S Lycidas, 1. 87.

3 The organ invented by Jubal, known to the Hebrews, and mentioned in the books of Job and of the Psalms, was merely a mouth organ, similar to that in use among the Greeks and most other ancient nations. The modern instrument, which has been consecrated to Psalmody and Church-Music, and which Dryden, with a poet's licence, ascribes to the inventive genius and devout gratitude of St. Cecilia, was known in Italy, Spain, and Africa, as early as the fifth and sixth centuries. It is described by Cassiodorus, who died A.D. 560. The first organ used in a church was one presented by the emperor Constantine Michael to Charlemagne. In the fourteenth century, the number of pipes was increased and the pedal and stops added. The Legend of St. Cecilia, whose martyrdom is by some ascribed to between A.D. 176 and 180, and by others to 230, says, that she sung to the sound of organs the praises of God alone. (Breviary, Nov. 22; CHAUCER, 2nd Nonnes Tale.) Hence she has been regarded as the Patroness of Church Music.

CANTO X.

THE ARGUMENT.

The Poets mount up, through a rough and narrow path, to the first round of Purgatory, where the Proud are punished. Here they see some Scriptural and Legendary examples of humility, sculptured with wondrous art in the white marble of the precipice. The shades of those who suffer for their former pride approach, each bending under the weight of a rocky burden.

WHEN we had pass'd the threshold of the gate

From which the soul's corrupt desires rebound,
Making the crooked way appear the straight,1
My startled ear perceived its closing sound:
And towards it if I then had turn'd mine eyes,
How could my
fault a fit excuse have found?
Up through a riven rock our pathway lies,
Which now on this hand now on that was bent,
Even as the wave advances and then flies.
"Here," said my master, as we made the ascent,
"Some little skill to wind our way we need,
Just as their walls the parted rocks present."
With such slow steps this caused us to proceed,
That now the moon, already in her wane,

Ere we from out that needle's eye were freed,"

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1 The love of sin makes men shrink back from the good way, and often deceives them with the false hope of safety without repentance and amendment of life.

2 An oriental figure to denote a narrow path or entrance.-See Matt. xix. 24.