" In the poem Cato is
represented as challenging the poets as if they were fugitives from
Hell. When he is told that it is by divine decree that the pilgrims are
making the journey, he bids Virgil cleanse Dante with dew and gird him
with a rush and he concludes by saying: "then be not this way your
return, the sun which now is rising, will show you how to take the mount
at an easier ascent"--words whose spiritual sense would seem to be that
once the soul has turned to virtue, it must never go back to sin and in
its upward path to perfection it will be guided by the rays of divine
grace (the sun) whose enlightenment will make the ascent easier.
While lingering on the shore, undecided which way to turn, the poets see
a great marvel. Over the water dancing with sunlight comes a white boat
propelled by the white wings of an angel called the Divine Bird, red
with flame and bringing from the banks of the Tiber, the bosom of the
Church, over a hundred souls to begin their term in Purgatory. In
Charon's bark the reprobate souls fill the air with their imprecations;
in the angel-steered boat the spirits coming to Purgatory devoutly
chant: "When Israel went out of Egypt," the psalm so fittingly
descriptive of their own liberation from guilt and their coming into
peace.
Pages:
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169