She laid thee here; and first her beauteous eyes
That open entrance pointed out to me;
Then she and sleep together went away."
(IX, 49.)
The poet, as we said before, cannot enter Purgatory until he mounts the
three steps of confession, contrition and satisfaction. Moreover, he
must receive absolution from the angel-keeper, typical of the priestly
confessor, and he must have seven P's branded upon his forehead. When
this is done the angel opens the gate and Dante enters to the sound of a
thunder-peal from the organ of Heaven, and of voices expressing the joy
of Heaven upon the sinner's doing penance.
Dante's description, which now follows, of the lovely art displayed on
the terrace of Pride leads to the reflection that he must have been a
matchless master of visual instruction or at least the representative of
his times, which, before the age of printing, taught the people by means
of pictures painted upon canvas, burnt in glass or chiseled in stone.
Certain it is that the people of Dante's day from seeing the productions
of art knew the Bible and sacred and profane history so well as to amaze
subsequent generations taught from the printed page. Be that as it may,
the power and beauty of Dante's pictures on the terraces of Purgatory
show his consummate knowledge of a principle of psychology very much
operative in our day, a principle which makes character by educating the
will far better than any other pedagogical method.
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