ad Can Grande).
One of the earliest commentators amplifies the poet's statement.
Benvenuto da Imola writes: "The matter or subject of this book is the
state of the human soul both as connected with the human body and as
separated from it. As the state of the whole is threefold, so does the
author divide his work into three parts. A soul may be in sin; such a
one even while it lives with the body, is morally speaking dead, and
hence it is in moral Hell; when separated from the body, if it died
incurably obstinate, it is in the actual Hell. Again a soul may be
receding from vice: such a one while still in the body is in the moral
Purgatory, or in the act of penance in which it purges away its sin; if
separated, it is in the actual Purgatory. Yet even while living in the
body, a soul is already in a manner in Paradise, for it exists in as
great felicity as is possible in this life of misery: separated from the
body, it is in the heavenly Paradise where there is true and perfect
happiness, where it enjoys the vision of God." (Ozanam, Dante, p. 129.)
This testimony as to the subject matter of the Divine Comedy is brought
forth to offset the statements not infrequently made by expositors who
deny or ignore the supernatural that Dante's full thought can be
realized even if the reader rejects the poet's spiritual teaching,
especially his doctrine of the existence of a real Heaven and a real
Hell.
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