CANTO XVI.

THE ARGUMENT.

Moving on in the smoke, which allowed them not to see, the poets hear voices chanting the Agnus Dei. The shades, learning with surprise that Dante lives, one of them named Marco Lombardo, addresses him, and they converse. He asserts the freedom of the will, and refutes the error of the Fatalists; at the same time he censures the union of temporal and spiritual authority in the Popes, and ascribes to it the degeneracy of the age. He praises three men, who had retained their integrity and given examples of the ancient virtue.

HELL's darkness, and the night's when stripp'd of all The lights above us, leaving heaven a waste, However thick may be their cloudy pall,

Before my sight so gross a veil ne'er placed,

As did that smoke with which we then were cover'd, Nor with so rough a cloak my sense embraced. To keep my eyes unclosed I was not suffer'd. On which my wise and trusty escort hied Close to me, and his arm to aid me offer'd.

Thus, as a blind man goes behind his guide,

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Lest he should lose his way, or have to bear
Some stroke whence harm or death might him betide;

I follow'd through that harsh and filthy air,

And listening heard my leader merely say, "That thou be parted not from me take care." Then heard I voices which appear'd to pray

That they thy peace and mercy might obtain, O Lamb of God, who tak'st our sins away.1 With Agnus Dei still commenced their strain: In unison of tone and voice they cry,

And concord sweet among them seem'd to reign. "And are they spirits, Master," then said I,

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"Whom now I hear?" "They are," my leader spoke, "Marching while they the knot of wrath untie." "And who art thou who cleavèst thus our smoke, And speakest of us, as if yet inclined

To reckon time by months, like living folk ?" 2 These words one voice was heard to speak behind. › Answer, and ask," my master said, “if we

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Some upward path from hence that leads may find." 30 I said, "O thou that seek'st in purity

Back to thy Maker's presence to be sped, I'll tell thee wonders, if thou follow me." "I'll follow thee far as I can," he said,

"And if our vision pierce not this thick fume, We'll keep at hand with talking in its stead." I answer'd, "With that body which the tomb Hath not yet claim'd, I go above to range: And I came hither through the infernal gloom. And if in me God's grace hath wrought such change, 40 That he will have me visit his high court,

And in a way to modern use quite strange, 3 What thou hast been ere death, to me report; And say, if rightly towards the pass we go;

1 John i. 29.

2 Dante's question, "Are they spirits ?" implied that he was not one, but a living man to whom the things of another world were strange.

See Inferno, ii. 10—33.

And thither let thy accents us escort."

"I was a Lombard, Marco named,1 not slow

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To scan mankind; that worth possess'd my love From whence each now hath turn'd aside his bow. Direct from hence thy path on high will prove." Thus he replied; and added, "Pray for me, I do beseech thee, when thou art above." "For what thou ask'st, my faith I pledge to thee," I said, "but now to bursting I am troubled With doubt, unless I solve the mystery. Single it was at first, but now 'tis doubled, By thy decision, and one given elsewhere, 2 Since this with that I have together coupled. The world, as thou hast said, is left quite bare Of every virtue which erewhile did grace it, And sown with teeming malice every where. But whence the cause? I do entreat thee trace it, That others may through me the knowledge gain; For some in heaven and some on earth would place it." His grief one deep-drawn sigh did first constrain,

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Breathed in "Ay me!" Then he commenced, "My friend, The world is blind; that thence thou com'st is plain. You living would make all events depend

On heaven; and all things else, howe'er employ'd,
Moved by necessity to shape its end.3

If this were so, free choice would be destroy'd

In

you, and Justice with her balance even,

In good men's peace and bad men's woe be void.

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1 A gentleman of Venice, described by Villani as "a wise and worthy courtier." Lombardo denoted at once his surname and the country to which he belonged.

* That heard from Guido del Duca of Brettino, Canto xiv.

Alluding to the doctrines of Judicial Astrology, and of Destiny or Fate.

Your movements take their origin from Heaven :

I say not all, but if I did so say,

The light for good or ill to you is given ;
And Free-will, which with toil may win the day,
In her first battles with a hostile star,

Then conquers all, if train'd in the right way.1
To One with power and goodness greater far,
Though free, you're subject:2 that in you creates 80
The mind which fears no adverse planet's war.
If then this world your virtue dissipates,

In you the cause is, you yourselves betray,
As I'll bear witness, and absolve the Fates.
Forth from His hand who, ere she sees the day,3
Loves her, ev'n as an infant when he shows
His grief or gladness in his childish play,
Issues the simple soul, that nothing knows,
Save that from her blest Maker just come forth,
Promptly to that which pleases her she goes.

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1 "The human race when most completely free is in its highest state of excellence."-DANTE, De Monarchia, i.

Though subject to the power and dependent on the bounty of God, mankind are left in possession of moral freedom.

"Thine eyes did see my substance yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, when they should be fashioned, while yet there was none of them."-Psalm cxxxix. 16. See also Prov. viii. 22-31.

4 These lines remind us of the verses addressed by the virtuous Emperor Hadrian to his departing soul, as they have been transmitted to us by the historian Spartianus:-Animula, blandula, vagula, &c.

"Dear, charming sprite, wee wandering thing,

Boon comrade of this mortal part;

Where dost thou now thy passage wing?

How stark, and pale, and wan thou art,
Nor jests as usual canst impart!"

At first of small delights she finds no dearth:

By these deceived she forfeits her true dower,
Unless of guide and rein she prove the worth.
Hence laws provide fit bridle; hence the power
Of wise and righteous kings, who, though aloof,
Of the true city have descried the tower. 1
Yes, there are laws, but who of these makes proof?
None; for the shepherd who the flock precedes,
Can ruminate, but cleaveth not the hoof.?
And when the flock see that the pastor heeds.
Merely that good which they crave eagerly,
They browse content with that on which he feeds.
To its bad guidance then, well mayst thou see,
The present age its wickedness hath owed,
And not to nature's inward malady.

Rome that of old reform'd the world, bestow'd3

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1 The fortress of a state, and most necessary virtue of a ruler is justice. Again, "the true city" is the Church, or Society of true believers; the heavenly Jerusalem, as opposed to Babylon, the city of confusion and falsehood.—Rev. xxi. 9, 10.

2 Dante, describes the Pope as an unclean beast, on account of his union of the temporal and spiritual power in his own single person. "The camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you."-Lev. xi. 4. It is very proper for the Pope to "ruminate," but it is hardly reasonable to require or expect his holiness to show the cloven foot.

3 Till the beginning of the eighth century, the Bishop of Rome was subject to the Emperor. ‘Leo,” says Dupin, was acknowledged emperor at Rome in 717; he opposed the worship of images, and published an edict in which he ordered them to be thrown down, and that none should be allowed in churches. Pope Gregory II. strenuously opposed the emperor's design, and, supported by the Lombards, excommunicated him. Gregory III., who succeeded him in 731, defended the worship of images with