"
Dante's plan of Purgatorial punishment makes no distinction between the
punishment put forth for unforgiven venial sin and that due in
satisfaction for the violation of the moral order by one whose guilt has
been remitted. Both partake of the same penalty. Is that because the
poet thinks that if forgiveness is finally won by sorrow and suffering,
expiation for the offence is still to be made? Or does he hold that the
seven capital sins entailing temporal punishment either operate
effectively in every soul, or exist at least radically according to the
principle voiced by Hamilton Wright Mabie: "The man who slowly builds
Heaven with him, has constantly the terrible knowledge that he has only
to put his hand forth in another direction in order to build Hell?"
In any event Dante, who shows in Hell how men are made sin eternally, in
Purgatory exhibits the sinful disposition more or less under the control
of the will, yet of such a nature that only the grace of God held the
soul back from the Abyss. It must be purged of all tendency to evil so
as to be made "pure and ready to mount to the stars." (XXXIII, 140.) The
purgation is seen in process in a threefold manner according to Dante. A
material punishment is inflicted to mortify the evil passion and to
incite the soul to virtue; the soul meditates upon the capital sin and
its opposite virtue, moved to abhorrence of the evil and to admiration
of the good by examples drawn from sacred and profane history; vocal
prayer is addressed to God and it brings forth grace to purify and
strengthen the soul.
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