The latter
teaches that Limbo is a place or a state, not merely of exemption from
suffering and sorrow, but of perfect natural happiness unbroken even by
a knowledge of a higher, a supernatural destiny that has never been
given. Dante's Limbo, on the other hand, represents the souls in sadness
brought about by their constant desire and hope never realizable, of
seeing God. They suffer no pain of sense, but they are baffled in their
endless yearning for the Beatific Vision. To quote Dante:
"There, in so far as I had power to hear,
Were lamentations none, but only sighs
That tremulous made the everlasting air.
And this arose from sorrow without torment,
Which the crowds had, that many were and great,
Of infants and of women and of men.
To me the Master good: 'Thou dost not ask
What spirits these may be, which thou beholdest?
Now will I have thee know, ere thou go farther,
That they sinned not; and if they merit had,
'T is not enough, because they had not baptism,
Which is the portal of the Faith thou holdest;
And if they were before Christianity,
In the right manner they adored not God;
And among such as these am I myself.
For such defects, and not for other guilt,
Lost are we, and are only so far punished,
That without hope we live on in desire.
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