"
This peerless rhetorical figure is explained in the Banquet, where he
says: "As his fellow-citizens come forth to meet him who returns from a
long journey even before he enters the gates of his city; so to the
noble soul come forth the citizens of the eternal Life." This apparition
of the blessed spirits to greet the mystic traveller as he mounts from
sphere to sphere has several advantages: "it peoples with hosts of
spirits, the immense lonely spaces through which the journey lies"; it
affords the poet the opportunity of asking them "many things which have
great utility and delight"; it finally gives him a sensible sign of the
degree of beatitude which they possess in that realm of many mansions
where each is rewarded according to his merit and capacity, the capacity
of each spirit being in proportion to its degree of knowledge and love.
This is stressed by the poet's representing the apparitions first as
faint yet beautiful outlines of human features, then as ascent is made
to the other Heavens, the spirits make themselves known by increasing
manifestations of light so dazzling finally that the splendor would
blind Dante if his vision were not divinely adapted to its supernatural
needs.
The inequalities of bliss are also symbolized by the sphere in which the
spirits appear to him; those in the sphere of the moon, e.
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