Salvo che, mossa da lieto fattore,
Volentier torna a ciò che la trastulla.*
Di picciol bene in pria sente sapore ;

Quivi s' inganna, e dietro ad esso corre,
Se guida o fren non torce suo amore.

Forth from the hand of Him, Who contemplates it
with delight ere it even exists, like to a little maid
that cries and laughs in her childish sport, issues the
soul, so simple that it knows nothing, save that, set
in motion by a blithe Creator, it eagerly turns to that

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the instant of its creation, has in itself the germs of knowledge, which in time are developed and brought out by instruction or study. Dante also followed the doctrine of St. Thomas Aquinas (Summ. Theol., p. 1, qu. lxxxiv), which is too long however to quote here.

* Volontier torna a ciò che la trastulla: The new soul turns instinctively to all that appears to charm it. It has not yet acquired ideas. Compare with this the beautiful passage in Convito iv, 12, ll. 138-176: "Il sommo desiderio di ciascuna cosa, e prima dalla Natura dato, è lo ritornare al suo Principio. E perocchè Iddio è Principio delle nostre anime e Fattore di quelle simili a sè, siccom' è scritto: 'Facciamo l' uomo ad imagine e simiglianza nostra'; essa anima massimamente desidera tornare a quello. E siccome peregrino che va per una via per la quale non fu, che ogni casa che da lungi vede, crede che sia l' albergo, e non trovando ciò essere, dirizza la credenza all' altra, e così di casa in casa tanto che all' albergo viene; così l' anima nostra, incontanente che nel nuovo e mai non fatto cammino di questa vita entra, dirizza gli occhi al termine del suo Sommo Bene, e però qualunque cosa vede, che paia avere in sè alcun bene, crede che sia esso. E perchè la sua conoscenza prima è imperfetta, per non essere sperta nè dottrinata, piccioli beni le paiono grandi; e però da quelli comincia prima a desiderare. Onde vedemo li parvoli desiderare massimamente un pomo; e poi più oltre procedendo, desiderare uno uccellino; e poi più oltre, desiderare bello vestimento; e poi il cavallo, e poi una donna: e poi le ricchezze non grandi, poi grandi, e poi grandissime. E questo incontra perchè in nulla di queste cose trova quello che va cercando, e credelo trovare più oltre. Per che vedere si puote che l'uno desiderabile sta dinanzi all' altro agli occhi della nostra anima per modo quasi piramidale, chè 'l minimo li copre prima tutti, ed è quasi punta dell' ultimo desiderabile, ch' è Dio, quasi base di tutti."

which gives it pleasure. Of trifling good at first it tastes the savour; herein it deceives itself (mistaking the gratification of the senses for the highest good) and runs after it, unless (some wise) guide or restraining curb turn not its desire (to better things). Benvenuto, taking this passage nearly in its literal sense, gives some intimate details of infantile delights, beginning with a baby's first impressions of its first warm bath, and tracing its nursery experiences up to the time when the full-grown man seeks greedily after riches, next after honour, glory, fame; and thence falling into pride and envy. Fraticelli explains it entirely allegorically; by guida he understands education, and by fren, the restraints of the law.

Marco adds that for this reason the law was invented, and a shepherd given to the flock.

*

Onde convenne legge per fren porre ;
Convenne rege* aver, che discernesse
Della vera cittade † almen la torre.

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rege: The Emperor. Although Benvenuto tries to explain this as meaning a spiritual ruler, who should by his teaching declare to men the sublimity of bliss in the Eternal City of God, Buti, Lana, Fraticelli and others, say that it became necessary to have a ruler who should make men observe the laws, and who, at all events in a general way, should have such understanding of the real good as to know that justice is the bulwark and defence of the eternal city. Buti observes: "Let the Ruler know that what guards our rationality is justice, and if he cannot know all the other species of virtues, let him at least have a general knowledge of them . . . . All gentlemen are not philosophers, though, from being placed above others they ought to be; but, at least, they ought to have their intellects disposed towards justice; and this is shown by Dante making Marco speak of men being the cause of the corruption of the world." Compare De Monarchia, i, 12, 13; also Conv. iv, 4.

+ vera cittade: On this Andreoli, in his commentary, observes that Dante, in Convito iv, 24, divides life into two cities, one of good life, and the other of wicked life (following St. Augustine's

Hence it became necessary to establish laws as a
restraining bit, it became necessary to have a Monarch,
who should discern at least the towers of the true
city.

Marco, having declared that laws are necessary to direct men to what is good, next upbraids the rulers who administer the laws in word only, but not in deed; the consequence of which is general depravity. In the lines that follow Benvenuto notices the extraordinary power that Marco exhibits of saying biting things (Dicit ergo Marcus qui consueverat in vita bene scire mordere).

Le leggi son, ma chi pon mano ad esse?

Nullo; perocchè il pastor che precede
Ruminar* può, ma non ha l' unghie fesse.

The laws exist, but who sets a hand to them (¿.e., who
sees to their observance)? No one; because the shep-
herd who takes precedence (in Pontifical dignity),
can chew the cud, but does not divide the hoof.

Benvenuto contends that Dante means the modern Shepherd, the Pope, chewing the cud in the sense of having the law of God constantly on his lips, and

definition of la Città di Dio, and la Città del Diavolo); and in this passage Dante means to say that of the good city; it is the duty of the Emperor to point out the bulwarks; for Dante always held that the imperial power should never overstep the limits of the supreme direction of the universal monarchy.

Ruminar: "Dieu défendit aux Hébreux de se nourrir d'aucun animal qui ne ruminât, et n'eût les ongles fendus (Lev. xi). Selon les interprètes de l'Ecriture, le ruminer, dans le sens mystique, signifie la sagesse, et les ongles fendus, l'action. Appliquant cette image à la doctrine développée par lui dans son livre De Monarchia, Dante dit que le Pasteur qui précède le Pape, dont la fonction est la plus noble, peut ruminer, c'està-dire préparer l'aliment spirituel pour le corps de la République chrétienne, mais qu'il n'a pas les ongles fendus, ou le pouvoir temporel, lequel appartient à l'Empereur."-Lamennais.

fully discussing it. In truth Boniface VIII had a thorough knowledge of the laws and the Holy Scriptures, and wrote treatises on canonical law, but did not divide the temporal power from the spiritual, but rather confounded the two.

Marco then proceeds, from the above premisses, to infer the conclusion which he had been gradually developing, viz.: that the wickedness of the Shepherd is the principal cause of the perversion of the world.

The Papacy becomes a temporal and worldly power, seeking after worldly good, and clergy and laity alike follow its example.

Per che la gente, che sua guida vede

Pure a quel ben* ferire ond' ell' è ghiotta,
Di quel si pasce, e più oltre non chiede.

Ben puoi veder + che la mala condotta

E la cagion che il mondo ha fatto reo,
E non natura che in voi sia corrotta.

On this account the people, who see their guide
aiming only at those (temporal) goods for which they
are eager, feed (in their turn) on the same, and ask
for nothing further. Well canst thou perceive that
evil governance is the cause that has made the world
guilty, and not that nature is corrupt in you.

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* quel ben: This means earthly possessions. In some old French satirical verses the following lines (quoted by Longfellow) occur:

"Au temps passé du siècle d'or,
Crosse de bois, évêque d'or;
Maintenant changent les lois,
Crosse d'or, évêque de bois."

+ puoi veder: Compare Isaiah, lvi, 11:“ They are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter." And Jer. 1, 6: "My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains."

What Marco would say is: "From what I have set forth, you can now recognise that the cause of the world being so empty of virtue, and so charged with vice, cannot be attributed either to the influence of the planets or to the corruption of human nature, but to the evil guidance, and bad government of the world." Marco now gives a kind of retrospect of the early Empire, of which Dante also speaks (Convito, iv, 5) as a golden age. Perhaps the period of the Antonines is meant, when the Emperor ruled righteously in temporal things, and the successor of St. Peter exercised an independent authority over the church in spiritual things. But the endowment of the church of Rome by Constantine had spoiled everything.

Soleva Roma, che il buon mondo feo,*

Due Soli + aver, che l'una e l'altra strada

Roma, che il buon mondo feo: Compare Convito, iv, 5, 11. 16-32: “Volendo la smisurabile Bontà divina l' umana creatura a sè riconformare, che per lo peccato della prevaricazione del primo uomo da Dio era partita e disformata, eletto fu in quell'altissimo e congiuntissimo Concistoro divino della Trinità, che '1 Figliuolo di Dio in terra discendesse a fare questa concordia. E perocchè nella sua venuta nel mondo, non solamente il Cielo, ma la Terra conveniva essere in ottima disposizione; e la ottima disposizione della Terra sia quand' ella è Monarchia, cioè tutta ha uno Principe, come detto è di sopra ; ordinato fu per lo divino Provvedimento quello popolo e quella città che ciò dovea compiere, cioè la gloriosa Roma."

+ Due Soli, etc. This, which is the leading theory (says Philalethes) in Dante's political system, he brings out very forcibly in the following passage in the De Monarchia, iii, 16, 11. 14-82: "Ad hujus autem intelligentiam sciendum quod homo solus in entibus tenet medium corruptibilium et incorruptibilium; propter quod recte a philosophis adsimilatur horizonti, qui est medium duorum hemisphaeriorum. Nam homo, si consideretur secundum utramque partem essentialem, scilicet animam et corpus corruptibilis est, si consideretur tantum secundum unam, scilicet corpus; si vero secundum alteram, scilicet animam, incorruptibilis est. Propter quod bene Philosophus