epigraphy. In the presence of one of the most terrible creations of man they have not trembled.
But my purpose is not merely to say that Dante is not rightly understood, that men fail to comprehend his apostleship of moral grandeur. I desire to indicate a new conception of his work, a new view-point from which we may behold his great figure towering against the background of eternity.
II
The best proof of my thesis that the modern world is in general unable truly to understand the Divine Comedy lies in the limited nature of the ideas regarding Dante which have been held by certain very intelligent men. Some, like Carlyle, have seen in him a prophet; some, like Mazzini, an apostle of Italian unity; some, like Rossetti, an adept in strange mysteries; some, like Aroux, a heretic and precursor of the Reformation; some, like De Sanctis, simply a very great artist. But all such men are merely attributing to Dante purposes and qualities which many other writers have possessed as well. And we all tend to forget that Dante was something apart, a man unique. We assign him to one of the several classes into which we so readily divide the host of the workers of the spirit. Be-
