Coming
out of the blackness of Hell just before dawn on Easter Sunday, Virgil
and Dante are entranced at the beautiful scene before them. Through a
cloudless sky of that deep blue for which the sapphire is noted, shines
Venus, the morning star; in the south appear four wonderful stars of
still greater brilliancy, seen before only by our first parents.
"Sweet sheen of oriental sapphire hue
That, mantling in the aspect calm and bright
Of the pure air, to the primal circle grew,
Began afresh to give my eyes delight
Soon as I issued from the deathful air
That had cast sadness o'er my mind and sight,
The beauteous planet that for love takes care
Was making the East laugh through all its span,
Veiling the Fish, that in its escort were
Turned to the right, I set my mind to scan
The other pole; and four stars met my gaze
Ne'er seen before, except by primal man
Heaven seemed rejoicing in their flaming rays."
The two poets looking to the north see Cato the Warder of Purgatory, his
face illuminated by the four stars, typical of the cardinal virtues,
Prudence, Justice, Fortitude and Temperance. Is Dante's selection of
Cato, the pagan suicide, as the guardian of Christian Purgatory, to be
taken as an example of the broadmindedness of the poet who believes "so
wide arms hath goodness infinite, that it receives all who turn to it?"
Or is it an instance showing how the leaven of the old Roman spirit in
the poet--a spirit which justifies suicide, prevails with his profession
of Christianity which condemns the taking of one's life? Whatever be the
answer "Cato's taking his own life rather than renounce liberty is
symbolical of the soul, destroying all selfishness that it may attain
the light and freedom of spiritual life.
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