"No uninspired hand," says Cardinal Manning, "has
ever written thoughts so high in words, so resplendent, as the last
stanza of the Divina Commedia." It was said of St. Thomas: "_Post Summam
Thomae nihil restat nisi lumen gloriae_." It may be said of Dante: "_Post
Dantis Paradisum nihil restat nisi visio Dei._" ("After Dante's Paradiso
nothing remains but the vision of God.")
Shelley's tribute to the supremacy of Dante's Heaven is no less
beautiful: "Dante's apotheosis of Beatrice and the gradations of his own
love and her loveliness by which, as by steps, he feigns himself to have
ascended to the throne of the Supreme Cause, is the most glorious
imagination of modern poetry."
Ruskin says: "Every line of the Paradiso is full of the most exquisite
and spiritual expressions of Christian truths and the poem is only less
read than the Inferno because it requires far greater attention and
perhaps, for its full enjoyment, a holier heart."
That Dante's Inferno is more popular reading than his Paradiso is due to
the fact that evil and its consequences offer to the artist richer
material for dramatic fascination and to the reader more lively interest
in characters intensely human, than does the less sensational story of
the Elects finding peace and happiness in a realm transcending the
experiences of human nature.
Pages:
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212