He assigns a lighter punishment to the unchaste than
to the unjust. Back of his plan is a sound theological doctrine. Guilt
is to be estimated not simply from the gravity of the matter prohibited
to conscience and the knowledge that one has of the evil, but more
especially from the malice displayed by the will in its voluntary
choosing and embracing the evil. Now impurity, it is held, is often a
sin of impulse. It springs from concupiscence, a common human
inclination, wrong only when there is inordinateness. Then though a man
freely consents to the temptation and thereby commits a grievous sin,
his will generally is not overcast with perversion or affected with
malice. That being so, Dante in assigning punishment for sins against
the virtue of purity is moved by the thought that such sins deserve a
milder punishment in Hell, because they may be oftener surprises than
infidelities.
To make known the nature of the particular sin he depicts Dante shows us
the evil in various phases. First of all it is personified in repulsive
demons, the guardians of the circles of Hell. At the very entrance,
sits, symbolizing the evil conscience, the sinners' judge "Minos
horrific and grins. The ill-born spirit comes before him, confesses all
and that sin-discerner (Minos) sees what place in Hell is for it, and
with his tail makes as many circles round himself as the degrees he will
have it descend.
Pages:
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135