Miss Hillard's, of the Vita Nuova Rossetti's, and of the De Monarchia Church's; but I have not thought it necessary in every instance to keep rigidly to the ipsissima verba of these versions. Constant reference has been made throughout the exposition to the writings of Dante's great ethical authorities, Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas; but my chief aim has been to make Dante his own interpreter. His principal works are so interwoven with one another that any satisfactory interpretation of the Inferno must bear a constant reference, not only to the Purgatorio and Paradiso, but also to the Vita Nuova, the Convito, the De Monarchia, and the Letters. One value of this reference is that interest is enlisted in Dante's works as a whole. Whether my hope of completing the exposition of the poem be ever fulfilled, it would be a pleasure to think that the present volume has induced some readers to make acquaintance with the infinitely fairer and nobler universe of spirit unfolded in the Purgatorio and Paradiso. No man understands Dante until he has climbed with him the 'longer stairway.' INNISFAIL, NEWLANDS, GLASGOW, JOHN S. CARROLL. November 1903. |