quire, he says, what is the third heaven, and who are its movers; the answer is, the heaven is that of Venus, and its movers are the angels called Thrones. For, according to Ptolemy, the moveable heavens are nine*, and their order, in an ascending series, is this: The Moon, Mercury, The Sun, Mars, Venus, Saturn, The Starry Heaven, The Crystalline Heaven, beyond which is a tenth heaven that is at rest, the Empyreum, the more peculiar dwelling of the Divinity. According to St. Gregory, the orders of angels are nine, divided into three hierarchies, and ranking thus in an ascending series towards the Deity :: Each of these orders of angels has in its charge a heaven of corresponding rank in the series; and, consequently, that of Thrones being third has the superintendence of the third heaven. And thus is shown, that in the literal sense of the verse, "Voi che, intendendo, il terzo ciel movete," the poet invokes the celestial intelligences called Thrones, who direct the motions of the planet Venus. To explain the allegorical sense, he says, "by heaven I mean science, by the heavens, the sciences; an analogy be * Convito, Trat. 2. c. 4. true. A different arrangement is made by St. Dionysius, and adopted as the tween them being observable in various respects, but more especially in their conformity in number and order." He then gives three fanciful points of general similitude, and proceeds to show that the third heaven properly represents the science of rhetoric, and consequently that its movers are the rhetoricians. "We are first to observe," he says, "that the seven heavens nearest to us are those of the sun, moon, and planets, above which are two that are moveable, and one above all that is at rest. To the seven first heavens correspond the seven sciences, which are divided into Trivium and Quadrivium; thus Trivium comprehends Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, which answer to The Moon, Mercury, and Venus; Quadrivium comprehends Arithmetic, Music, Geometry, and Astrology, which answer to The Sun, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. "To the eighth, or starry heaven, correspond Physics and Metaphysics; to the ninth, the crystalline heaven, or Primum Mobile, corresponds the divine science of theology." The propriety of the allegory which compares each heaven to each science respectively is minutely pointed out, of which one specimen shall suffice. "The third heaven, or heaven of Venus, may be compared to rhetoric," he says, "by two peculiarities; one is the clearness of the aspect of that planet, which is softer and more attractive than that of any other star; the other is, that her appearance is at one time as the morning, and at another as the evening star; peculiarities which, by similitude, are seen in rhetoric; for it is the most pleasing and engaging of all the sciences, persuasion being its principal aim. It is like the morning-star when the voice of the rhetorician is heard in face of the listener, and is like the evening-star when his voice is supplied in a far-distant land by the eloquence of a letter*." He concludes thus: "By these similitudes may be seen who are the movers of the third heaven of whom I speak : movers like Boëtius and Cicero, who by the beams of the star of Venus (that is, by their writings) instigated me to the love (that is, to the study) of that fairest and most excellent lady, the beautiful and pure daughter of the emperor of the universe, to whom Pythagoras gave the name of Philosophy; the lady of whom I became enamoured when the loss of my first love had deprived me of the prime delight of my soul." The first canzone of the Convito, Voi che, intendendo, il terzo ciel movete, is referred to in the Paradiso, where Dante converses in the third heaven with the spirit of his friend and patron, Charles Martel, the king of Hungary: it relates the struggle between two rival and virtuous affections for the mastery, and may be called "The Triumph of Philosophy." The second canzone, Amor, che nella mente mi ragiona, is the song of Casella ‡, "Whom Dante woo'd to sing, Met in the milder shades of Purgatory §;" Conv. Tr. ii. c 14. See Pederzini's note, Ediz. Modena, 1831. Par. viii. 37. Purg. ii. 112. с § Milton's Sonnet. and the subject is "The Beauty of Philosophy," which is praised under the symbol of a lady, adorned with every personal and mental beauty that the eye and imagination of a poet discovers in his first love. The third canzone, Le dolci rime d'Amor ch'io solía, treats of "The Friend of Philosophy" or "True Nobility," with which she is united in the strictest bonds. Dante has been careful to leave no doubt of the sense in which he means the term Philosophy to be understood, and that Christianity is to be considered as its basis; as if he had anticipated a modern acceptation of the term, and the possibility of its being used to the perversion of its true meaning and of his intentions. He tells us, that in its literal and etymological sense it signifies the love of wisdom; and that the term 'philosopher' was first used by Pythagoras, when he modestly denied that he was a wise man, and would only allow that he was a lover of wisdom. It is clear that in the allegorical sense, the lady who is the subject of all his moral canzoni is not merely Philosophy, but the catholic philosophy of the thirteenth century. In a conventional sense, those sciences which we love and study, the noblest of which is theology, are called Philosophy. In a more enlarged sense, Philosophy signifies the whole body of the sciences, or Wisdom itself. In a still loftier sense, it is the wisdom which, in the language of Solomon, was with the Deity "when he prepared the heavens and set a com pass upon the face of the deep." (Prov. viii. 27.) "In a moral sense it is," says Dante, "a habit of the exercise of wisdom combined with love, which is manifested most conspicuously in the Deity, for in Him is all wisdom and all love continually exercised with omnipotence: Filosofia è uno amoroso uso di sapienzia, il quale massimamente è in Dio, perocchè in lui è somma sapienzia, e sommo amore, e sommo atto.' In an anagogical sense, Philosophy is the incarnate Word, Che per noi dirizzare in nostra similitudine venne a noi.” "Do ye then," says Dante, "who are not able to come into the presence of Philosophy, honour her in honouring the wise who love her; obey their commandments as teachers who announce to you the will of this eternal empress of the universe; shut not your ears to Solomon, who says, 'The path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day*;' but follow in their path, observing their ways, which to you should be a light to guide you in this uncertain and brief journey of life+.” Dante closes the Convito with a comment on the envoy of the canzone on "True Nobility." "Contra gli erranti, mia, tu te n'andrai: E quando tu sarai In parte dove sia la donna nostra, Non le tenere il tuo mestier coverto. Tu le puoi dir per certo : Io vo parlando dell' amica vostra." He says, "Contra gli erranti is the title I would give to this canzone, in imitation of the title Contra i Gentili, + Conv. Tr. iii. c. 15. * Prov. iv. 18. c 2 |