The Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri

Cahto XI. HELL. 41 Onwards, my son, within these rocks are placed," Began he then to tell me, '^ circles three. In steps decreasing, like the one thou'st traced. They all are full of cursed souls, that free Thy sight alone full knowledge may create. ^ Hear now the how and wherefore these things be. Of every malice that in Heaven wins hate The end is injury, and each such plan By force or fraud on some wreaks wof ul fate.

Since fraud is ill peculiar unto man ^ God it displeases more, and hence more low The fraudulent are doomed to greater pain. The violent fill the outer vale of woe. And since in three ways violence is shown. In three compartments 'tis divided so. To God, oneself, one's neighbour force is done, 111 their own persons and affairs, I say. As with developed reason will be known.

Murder by violence and fierce affray, Attack one's neighbour's person, his estate, Destructions, burnings, carryings away. Whence homicides and all who wound in hate. Spoilers and plunderers, all tormented lie In this first ward, though doomed to diverse fate. Man on himself his violence can try, ^ And on his goods, so in the second ward 'Tis fit that they repent all needlessly, Whoever in your life quits life abhorred.

Gambles, and wastes away his faculty, And waileth there where life should joy afford. *^ Foree can be shown against the Deity By cursing and denying with the "heart, Outraging Nature and her bounty free. Therefore the smaller ward sealeth apart Both Sodom and Caorsa with its seal, *• And whosoe'er denies God in his heart. Line 45.

" Ajid waileth there where life should joy afford/^ A oanaeless melaiicholy, refosing to enjoy the gifts of 6od*s boontyin life, is classed with snicide and gambling, and punished in a lower pit of Hell than murder and robbery by violence. Line 50. " Both Sodom and Caorsa. Caorsa, a city of Gnienne, infamous for usury. The sins of Caorsa and Sodom are classed together, as outraging Ood by violence, through Nature.

Usury is ranked as the greater crime, as it was undoubtedly considered throughout the Middle Ages, and Dante, with all fai« genius, is essentially a man of his age.

42 HELL. Cahto XL Such fraud, for wbicb all must compunction feel< Can man exert 'gainst him whose trust he shares. And him whose thoughts no confidence rereal. This latter fEushion all unseemly tears ^ The golden chain of love which Nature weaves. Whence gather in the second circle's lairs Hypocrisy, sJl flattery that deceives. Witchcraft, lies, thefts, the Simoniac blot.

Panders, chicaners, and all similar thieves. ^ By the other mode not only is forgot Nature's more general, but that special love By which the special trust was erst begot. Whence in the smaller circle, where above The centre of the world is Dis's throne, ** All who betray eternal torments prove. And I : '' O master, very clear is shown Thy argument, and hence is clear descried Those prisons and the people which they own.

But say, the dwellers in the sluggish tide, ^^ Whom the wind whirls and whom the rainstorms smite. And those who with sharp tongues so fiercely plied, Wherefore within this glowing city's site Are they not punished, if beneath Ood's ire ? And if not so, why doomed to such despite ? '^ And he to me : '' What ravings now inspire Thy thoughts to strike on this unwonted chord ?

Or to what region does thy mind respirei Dost thou not then remember thee the word With which thy Aristotle's Ethics styled, ^ The three bad dispositions Heaven abhorred ? Incontinence, and malice, and the wild Bestiality ? and how incontinence Offends Ood less and suffers blame more mildP If thou regardest well that saying's sense, ^ And bnngest to thy mind what men are these Who on the outside suffer pimishment.

Thou wouldst see clearly wherefore in degrees All separate from these wretches, with less spite They are afflicted by Heaven's just decrees." ^ ** O Sun, that healest every troubled sight. Thou so contentest me when thou mak'st clear Doubts, that no less than knowledge they delight, Lines 70, 72. The wrathfoli the hucivious, the glnttonoos, the avorioioas and prodigal, whose punishments have been described in the preceding Cantos.

Gavto xn. HELL. 49

p. 95

KW

Backwards again thj thoughts a little steer. There where thou saidst that usury ofEeuds Ck)odnes8 Divine, and make the mystery clear.'* "Whoe'er," he said, ** philosophy attends, Leameth therefrom not only in one part. How Nature duly her own course extends From Intellect Divine, and from its art. And if thou'lt carefully thy Physics scan. Thou wilt discover in the opening part That your Art follows Nature as it can. Like the disciple goes his lord behind ; So that God's grandchild is the art of man. ^^'* From Art and Nature, if thou bring'st to mind The verse of Genesis, 'tis doomed alone That man should live and carry on his kind. And since to usurers other ways are known. Both Nature and her follower stand confest "^ Outraged by those whose trust is elsewhere shown. Follow me now, enough has been our rest, And on the horizon now the Pisces shine. And all the Wain reclineth o'er the west. And further up the cliffs less steep decline."

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Line 101. Yirgil, as vusnaX, is quoting from Aristotle. Line 106. " From Art and Nature, if thoa bring'st to miikd The verse of Genesis." The earions argument by which the crime of nsnry is proved is this : GK>d has decreed that man shall live by the sweat of his face — i.e., by labour which cultivates some art, which last is the child of Nature. Usurers live neither by Nature nor by labour (or art) ; they, therefore, outrage Nature both in herself and her ofipring, and are, therttore, worse even wan Sodomites !