XII. SPHERE OF THE SUN (continued) - THE SECOND GARLAND OF GLORIFIED SOULS-BONAVENTURA, A FRANCISCAN, CELEBRATES THE PRAISES OF ST. DOMINIC, AND CENSURES THE DEGENERACY OF THE XIII. SPHERE OF THE SUN (continued) — ST. THOMAS AQUINAS RESUMES HIS SPEECH-HE DISCOURSES ON THE WISDOM OF SOLOMON, WHICH IS SECOND ONLY TO THAT OF ADAM AND CHRIST-THE CAPRI- XIV. SPHERE OF THE SUN (concluded)-SOLOMON SPEAKS OF THE GLORIOUS APPEARANCE OF THE BLESSED AFTER THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY-Ascent TO THE FIFTH HEAVEN-THE SPHERE OF MARS- PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. IN this Second Edition the work has been care- A section on the subject of Giotto's portrait of Dante in the Bargello at Florence has been added I have again to thank my friends, Dr. Moore, Mr. D. R. Fearon, C.B., Mr. H. R. Tedder, and Dr. Paget Toynbee, Litt. Doct., for the valuable assistance they have always been ready and willing I thank my Wife for her ample and lucid Index. The reading of the proofs and the Italian revision In the course of sending the final sheets to the Press, I have received the sad news of the death of Professor Charles Eliot Norton. In him America mourns a man of great learning and academic distinction, besides being the most distinguished Dantist of that country. I lament the end of a friendship of nearly forty years, during which time. I have benefited from a constant, intimate and affectionate correspondence. Professor Norton was one of the most lovable of men, and the most sincere of friends. 24th October, 1908. W. W V. PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION IN the preface to my two volumes on the Inferno, published in 1894, I expressed the hope that life and ability might be vouchsafed to me to cope with the mystic beauties of the Paradiso, and to complete the attempt made in these Readings to make plain to a beginner the difficulties of the three immortal cantiche. Life has been spared to me, and with great diffidence I now present the completion of my work. It has been thoughtlessly said that there is a falling away of human interest in the Paradiso, as if humanity were only interested in the weaknesses and vices of our race, but nowhere else, throughout the Divina Commedia, can be found such pictures of great and good men made perfect, nowhere can the gentlest, as well as the noblest, of human aspirations be seen in so many and so varied forms. Perfect love, in its highest and purest manifestation, is here pictured by a pencil wielded with exquisite grace and power. But the great and good actions of man are not forgotten. The majestic summary of Roman history, placed in the mouth of Justinian, seems to be spoken to the sound of the marching feet of triumphant legions. Civic life in its simple primitive condition is represented in Cacciaguida's story of old Florentine days-a gem of description of the un |