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WHY NEGI-ECT DANTE?' ri " poets. lt is perhaps a of rro slight historical value.:-Jr of weakness in rvriters to And incidently let us remark*:r-e to eourt the low instincts that ages 'which closecl with: :r'e reacler to keep his atten- Dante as their spokesm,an ,and:-, 11. Dante is a genius ; in him poet laureate could not, after't-r tincl evidence of a master all, be such dark ages as they:,--:r'1 that has fed abundantly are often represented.:1,.,n the substantial bread of We have claimed merit for-l::th and not upon the empty Dante as a philosopher. -We-:=k,. of error and doubt. For, might take the whole of "Purgatory"as an instance of his':t well noted, Dante's ethical:i..i:hings are not the random philosophic teachings. This.' :sions of a dilettante; they part of the "Divine Comedy"iri the expressions of deep is a treatise on Christian anthropology,dealing with intri-.;: i fir'm convictions based up-: the solid rock of natural and cate questions of the formation:rr-ealed truth.ancl growth of man's body, theorigin of the soul, its nature,-[- llIS Ln'ings us to consider its immortality-in all of whichI arrolher of the manifold:--trits of the ,,Divine the poet follows the peripateticCom- doctrine of Aristotle and St.. lI-." and that is what we Thomas, and defends it against-,ight call its dogmatic solidity.- tirnte Averroes and other assistants.is sound and safe from It will be interesting for studentsof philosophy to notice: -e standpoint of philosophical' r,i-1 theological principles, and how close the poet comes to the.l,r'r11 nearly all the more very theses which are estabiisheilin our modern anthro--eighty questions of potitical.rril ss6ir1 science. In an age polog;...-ke ours, when insidious errorreeps into nearly all forms of n ANTE had a high regardrterary art, the unimpeachable l) for plrilosophy. He' all'thocloxy of Dante should en- most read himself blind studyingit; he speaks praisingly of:rar him to us anil set him up-ri Lrrlr estimation as the high Pl,ato and Aristotle, whom he: r'iest of science among the places in the enamelled greensr -,ets, the one ]rard and doctor of Limbo; he makes Virgii personifyhurnan re,ason; Virgil,'1-!ose tuneful poem is worthy'i our most studious perusal, whom he thought enough of toir 111,1 is bound to elicit the enthu- imitate, and whom he chose as.rastic praise and admiriation his kincily guide through thei ererv candid lover of truth nether world and up the Mount,irrr-l faith. Dante gives expres- of Purgatory. Alwa,vs he gives-ion to all the accumulated to philosophy that dignit;'-ialnin€J of the }liilille Ages. which belongs to the handmaidTre "Divine Comedy" has of sacred science, l'ho shall unlockthe golden gates of thereen justly called the encvclot,er-liaof those times. Philosor,[r,tlleo]ogy, astronomv, his- It is not as philosopher butlight-flooded realm of Faith.:,rrr-. politics enter into the as theologian that Dante exce1s.As the laureate of schol-: urposition; it reflects, then,.r l the variecl and profound asticism .he sings St. Thomas,.rrowledge, the tastes, the loves St. Bonaventure, and othertlr,l lrrtretls of those impas- learned iloctors. The "Divine.,oned eenturies, so much ma- Comed.r." bears out the truth-i:necl. 11-e may note in passing of the inscription on the poet'slLat the "Divine Comed;.,,, be- tomb: "A theologian to whom:irs a faithful mirror held up no dogma was unknown. " This; efc,re the face of those ages, is poem, adorned with all its fan-259ciful embellishments, yet everfirmly grounded upon the solidrock of faith, is like one ofthose beautiful Gothic cathedrals,who se foundationsseemed rooted in the veryheart of the earth, while theirlofty spires pierce the heavensancl their thousand niches arepeopled with saints. The "DivineCorned.v" teaches all themost important beliefs concerningGod and man, virtueand its reward, heaven, purgatory,heil, good ancl evil, itspunishment, its purifioation.tf1Htr grand epic takes upI such momentous subjectsas the Trinit.r', the Incarnation,the Redemption, the primacyof Peter, the efficacy of prayer,the sacraments, the invocationof the saints, the exalted dignityof the Yirgin l{arv, andothers of this nature. As nonebut Christians could have builtthe marvelous cathedrals ofl)urope, so none but a theologiancould have r,vritten the"Divine Comedy. " In fact,the whole poem is the apotheosisof theology in the personof Beatrice, who is the heroineof the epic. To Dante no scienceappeared more ercellentthan the science of God, sacreclscience, or theologv.. Hencethe dignified station and rolehe has assigned to theology inhis masterful epic. Beatrice isfar and awav above \rirgil andthe philosophers.If the new testament and allchurch doctrine were lost, itwould not be impossible to reconstructthe entire bod.v ofClLristian doctrine, as to essentiaipoints at least, from the"Divine Comed;'." The poem,as has alread_v been said, dealswith all kinds of faiths whichrve have learned reverentll- torepeat at our mother's knee Iand the illustrious author dealswith the faiths not in the flippantstyle of certain modern,self-wise higher critics, nor inthe faint-hearted tones of the(Continued on. page 276)