frank sewall dante and swedenborg london 1893

8/14/2019 Frank Sewall DANTE AND SWEDENBORG London 1893

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DANTE ANDSWEDENBORG

WITH OTHER ESSAYS ON THE

NEW RENAISSANCE

BY

FRANK SEWALLAUTHOR OF Il THE ETHICS OF SERVICE;" CI THE NEW METAPHYSICS ;

OR, THE LAW OF END, CAUSE AND EFJ'ECT," ETC.

JAMES SPEIRS36 BLOOMSBURY STREET, LONDON

18 93


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DANTE AND SWEDENBORG


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DANTE ANDSWEDENBORG

WITH OTHER ESSAYS ON THE

NEW RENAISSANCE

BY

FRANK SEWALLAUTHOR OF Il THE ETHICS OF SERVICE;" CI THE NEW METAPHYSICS ;

OR, THE LAW OF END, CAUSE AND EFJ'ECT," ETC.

JAMES SPEIRS36 BLOOMSBURY STREET, LONDON

18 93


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CONTENTS.PAO.

1. SONNET-DANTE, 1II. DANTE AND SWEDENBORG, 24III. "THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF DANTE "-A

REVIEW, 60IV . THE GREEK PHILOSOPHY IN ITS RELATION

TO THE LORD's.FIRST ADVENT, 81V. THE ITALIAN RENAISSANCE IN ITS RELATION

TO THE LORD'S SECOND ADVENT, 91VI. THE NEW RENAISSANCE, 104VII . FAUST IN MUSIC, 123

VII I . THE SECRET OF WAGNER, 144IX. SoNNET-THE ONE AND THE MANY, ISOX. SONNET-GOOD FRIDAY IN ST. MUNGO'S, 151XI. SONNET-cc ALL THAT DOTH PASS AWAY,". 152


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ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

THE Author acknowledges his indebtedness to theEditor of the Contem/ora", Revi'ew for kindlyallowing the republication here of the article on"Faust in Music."


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DANTE.AH 1 not as one who builds a world while dreaming,And wakes to find his shadowy visions ftee,Oh, man of during wing, thine eye did see

The things ~ h a t are ta mortal sense but seeming.In the strange stuff of shadows palely gleamingTake awful shapes the things men dread to 1now,From hell's abyss to heaven's high roseate glow,Marking the pathway of our sou1's redeeming.

But now the night is .past; the sun is high.Ghosts flee, and fancied action caBs for deeds.Whither then, Dante, is thy shade-world going?o wonder! see its very substance glowing !Glitter in sunshine aIl its dewy meads!Its dismal cliffs stand black against the sky!

A


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DANTE AND SWEDENBORG.1.

DANTE has been read and re-read, translated andcommented upon, now for five centuries. But hasany one ever undertaken to discover how much oftruth there is in Dante?Perhaps the age for seeking the truth in anything is gone by? Rather, the scientist would belikely to say, it has never come, till now. For ages,it would seem as if the world had never seriouslyasked for the truth regarding the spiritual world, andthat which must constitute by far the most important part ofman's life and destiny. In Dante's owntime, ifwe may judge from Boccaccio's commentson his life and his great poem, theology and poesywere regarded as occupying nearly the same rankin importance and in authority. Even the dogmaticassertions of the church respecting the unseen worldwere regarded with a kind of ceremonial respect,as if they belonged to a class of things morefictitious than reaI, sacred fictions, indeed, but stillfictions, like the myths of old and the tales of thepoets.In the history of literature there have beenproduced works which, while not claiming to be


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Dante and Sweden60rg. 3the utterances of revelation, have yet occupied aplace of authority and influence resembling thatwhich is accorded to the Divine oracles themselves.Such, for instance, was the whole system of thePlatonic philosophy, but especially the doctrineconcerning the spiritual and intellectual nature orman and the immortality of the soul 5uch we maysay has been the position allotted to the Div;NQCommedia of Dante, and perhaps, in less degree, tothe Paradise Lost of Milton. While not acceptedas Divine revelations on these hidden subjects, theyhave been regarded as a treasury of consecrated andhallowed fictions-d.escriptions which if not true areabout as likely ta he true as anything wc can knowon the subject, and as thercfore good substitutes forthe ttuth where no absolute or demonstrated truthis to he obtained on the subjects in question. 50have grown up, as Swedenborg describes suchphenomena in the world of spirits, a whole systemof artificial heavens and hells and their hierarchies,having no immediate basis in anything revealed,and yet held in popular religious estimation aspractically about as valid as revelation itself.

Says Milman in his History ofLatin Clmstianity,Book xiv. ch. 2,-a passage quoted by Longfellowin the notes to his translation of the DiVlnaCommedia :.. Throughout the Middle Ages the world after deathcontinue


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4 Dante and Swedenborg.their tonnents, their trials, their enjoyments, becamemore conceivable, almost more palpable to sense: tiUDante summed up the whole of this traditional lore, or atleast, with a Poet's intuitive sagacity, seized on aIl whichwas most imposing, effective, real, and condensed it in histhree co-ordinate poems. ThatHeU had a local existence,that immaterial spirits suffered bodily and materialtorments, none, or scarcely one hardy speculative mind,presumed to doubt. . .

"The medireval HeU had gathered from aU ages, aUlands, aIl races, its imagery, its denizens, its site, itsaccess, its commingling horrors; from the old Jewishtraditions, perhaps from the regions beyond the sphere ofthe Old Testament; from the Pagan poets, with theirblack rivers, their Cerberus, their boatman and his crazyvessel; perhaps from the Teutonic Hela, through sorne ofthe early visions. Then came the great Poet, and reducedall this chaos to a kind of order, moulded it up with thecosmical notions of the times, and made it, as it were,one"with the prevalent mundane system. A b o ~ e aU, hebrought it to the very borders of our world; he madethe life beyond the grave one with our present life; hemingled in close and intimate relation the present andthe future. Hen, Purgatory, Heaven, were but animmediate expansion and extension of the presentworld. . . .

cc. Of that which HeU, Purgatory, Heaven, were inpopular opinion during the Middle Ages, Dante was butthe full, deep, concentred expression; what he embodiedin verse, aU men believed, feared, hoped."The actual validity of these speculations and theirinfluence as touching the religious life of men mustalways dependJ- however, on the amount of supernatural authority ascribed to them or the amount ofrevelation recognized in them, and, therefore, first ofaIl, on the amount and k i ~ d of truth recognized in


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D a ~ l e aod Swede..oorg. 5revelation itself. It is a question whether thePlatonic philosophy, even its sublime doctrine ofthe soul's immortality, exerted a strictly religiousetrect on the Hellenic people until after the ChristianChurch had in a sense accepted, approved, andgiven it its supreme sanction. 1n other wards,Platonism did its refining, spiritualizing, and ete-vating work more after the Christian theologiansaccepted it as a precious vehicle of the church',teaching than it had ever done before. What itneeded was a standard br which the actual truthin it might he estimated, and 50 admiration for it asa philosophy be turnf1d into reverence (or it asrcvelation. This standard was round in the GospelofChristianity. That it had meanwhile exerted acertain intellectual influence of the highest import-ance in preparing, not ooly the Hellenic world, butthe whole rnind of the intelligent world at thatperlod, for ils future reception orthe revea.led Word,cannot he questioned; rather we may say it was anindispensable forerunner sent by the Divine Provi-dence Cor this training of the "understanding, 50that it migbt he elevated into the Iight of heaven,"cven while the will of humanity lay still degradcdiD its 100t and helpless condition.ln an article elsewhere on the" ltalian Renaissancein Its Relation to the Lord's Second Advent," 1 endeavour ta show how these extraordinary intel1cct1IaI iUuminations have preceded alike, and in bathinstances by a period of about four centuries, the


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two immediate revelations of Divine truth to man-kind, namel)", that of the Incarnation, and that ofthe opening of the Spiritual Sense of the Word,which constitute in spiritual reality the first and the~ o n d Advents of the Lord; and that the wideprevalence of Hellenic culture, which anticipatedthe first coming of the Lord as the Word madeFlesh, has its remarkable counterpart in "the intel-lectual influence of the ltalian Renaissance or therevival of leaming in preparing the ,vorld for thereception of that deeper revelation of the Word inHis Second Coming, which has enabled the Churchto cc enter intellectually into the things of faith."Referring the reader to the following essays fora treatment of this subject in its broader aspects, 1wish in the present paper to examine in the briefestpossible scope the part which Dante's Com,nediahas had to play in this providential course of theworld'g education, and the estimate , , are to putupon the description he gives us of the life aCterdeath. While not contributing directly to the. Revival of Learning, the great Italian epic may hesaid to he a summary of all the learning of thatlime, whether astrological. geographical. political,

1 theological, or moral. It is not 50 much a poem asa great realistic picture of the ,,hole universe, spiri-tual and natural, as it then stood clearly outlined inthe vie,, of the mighty intellect of its author. Thelanguage in which it ,vas ,vritten became therebyelevated to the dignity of a literary tongue to hehonoured by a glorious succession of poets,


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7biItorians, and phllosophers; white the subjcct.matter became, as above described, a kind ofuniversa1ly acceptcd I l working hypothesis" regard.!ng the nature of the spiritual world, whereby thegreat gap in autbentic dogmatic teaching was con-veniently filled out in a manner suited ta theimaginativewants of the people,and to the practicaldemands of moral and re1igious discipline. By acomparison with such works as Milton's ParadisllAst and Bunyan's Pmm's Progrus, wc can fonn,1 belicve, an approximate estimate of the aetualeR'ect. produced by this grand epic of the unseenwerlcl upon the popular religious mind, not ooly ofcontemporary, but of succeeding generations.-remembering too, as wc must, that Dante prccededIlUton by a period as long as that (rom the discoveryof America by Columbus to the end of the Revolu-tIonary War.Referring to the analogy briefty alluded to above,1 tbink wc shall find a dose resemblance betweenthe kind of authority hitherto attributed to Dante'sftsions of the ather world, and that which, beforethe Christian ua, was attributed to the teachings ofSocrates and Plato in relation to the life afterdeath.According 10 the Iight of the time, thcse visionswen:: neither improbable nor unreasonable; not onlyDOt contrary to Scripture, they seemed like theWdest literai confirmation of the teaching of both... BIble and the Church Fathers. Still there wuMCb in them that could he traced directly to no- .ed toW'CC of authority, and this sometimes


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8 Dante and Swedenborg.embraced principles of vast and fundamentalimportance. How much, then, of truthful informa-tion might men really look for in this vastly popularallegory, this great myth that has been throwing itsawful lustre, now bright, now dark, over the gropingthoughts of the Christian \vorld during the centuriesthat preceded the Lord's Second Advent?

To this question no answer could be given but bycomparing the visions ofDante with something thatcould be accepted as a standard of truth on thesesame subjects, and such a standard could only heround in Revelation. But, as Revelation, beyond thebare indications of a few broad, general truths onthe subject of the judgment and heaven and hell,has been believed to contain no particulars regardingthe life after death, therefore there has been for theChristian Church no means ofestimating the amountof actual truth in Dante's description of heaven,purgatory, and hell.

In a state of similar doubt, or mere guessing atthe reality, in regard to which there is no acceptedstandard of revealed truth, stands the world at thepresent day except for such as receive the revelationgiven in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg.This messenger and servant of the Lord has, so heavers, been permitted by the Lord to enter thathitherto hidden world, and to tell now in plain,unpoetical, and unfanciful terms the facts regardingits nature, its order, its govemment, and its life.For the first time are men, in the possession ofthesewritings, possessed of a standard whereby, on the


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na"te aM Swedenborg. 9ground of their authenticity, they may, with anaccoracy and a certainty no less than scient.ific,determine the amount of truth reatly embodied inthe visions of Dante.

It is not for a moment to be understood thatDante ever gave his visions forth as other than purepoetry, or as having more than an allegoric hasisof truth; nor that the world has ever formallysanctioned them as having anything of a supernatural charader; neither has it done 50 withMilton or Bunyan; and yet who will say that thereligious thought and the anticipations of the otherlife of Protestant Christian minds for the past twocenturies, have not been greatly tingcd by thereRections cast from the imaginations of these twowriters? 50 with Dante, while neither professedlyprophet nor secr, nor pope, nor doctor of theology ;yet in reality the power of his great poem has beenthat of all these combined in colouring the thoughtsand affections of men in their visions of theworld tocome And, while granting to Dante his full titleof poet as a truly great creator of thesc imaginaryworlds through which hc leads us in his awfulpilgrimage, yet even the imagination must havesome matcrial, and sorne scaffolding of information,of former doctrine or knowledge of sorne kind, onwhich and with which to build. And it is thisquestion as to fundamental sources of Dante'sideas of the spiritual world that chiefty interestsUs in attempting a comparison between Dante andSwedenborg.


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10 Dante and Swedenborg.The naturaI inference would he that Dante, inwriting an account of an imaginary pilgrimagethrough heU and purgatory and heaven, woulddescrihe those realms according to the vulgar conceptions then entertained, something as the miracleplays have done, or that the common traditions ofthe church and the few grand hints of the literaIScriptures would have sufficed for the material tohe employed. As a matter of fact, we find, in onesense, the heaven and the heU of Dante a verynarrow, commonplace, every-day kind of world;more so even than that of the Memorable Relations,

or those interviews with spirits and descriptions ofthe scenery of the spiritual world which Swedenborg has interspersed in the course of his doctrinalwritings. The people that Dante meets with inthat world are his former over-the-way, Florentineneighbours, who inquire about their relatives, orwishto be informed as to the progress of public alfairsin their quarrelsome little town. The rewardsand punishments of etemityare dispensed very considerably according to the poet's own resentmentor favour towards his former political associates;the scenery, the manners and customs, the courtesies and the jeers and insults he meets with areaU reftected from the narrow sphere of northItalian life. When we come to broader subjects,we find indeed the poet's vision and grasp wideningaccordingly, but stiU subject to the limitations oftraditional learning.

Thus his cosmology and geography are those of


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DMlt, a..a Sweikn6org-. I lHomer, Plata, and the literai Bible combined ; theearth being in the centre of the universe surroundedby the seven planetary spheres, or revolving heavens,beyond which is the heaven of fixed stars, then themoving but unmoved sphere of the seraphim andange!s ail concentring above in the" Rose of theblessed," on whose petais as on thrones in successive ranks are seated the saints and innocentchildren ail surrounding the lake of the Lightinapproachablc, where dwells the Atomic Point,the etemal Three-n-One. On the earth's surface,in the middle of the eastem hcmisphere, i5 situatedJerusalem, directly bcneath whicb the hells descendin successive degrees to the inmost point or theearth's centre, where is the ahode of Lucifer;tbence is an ascent through the other side of theearth to a high projection or mountain far out inthe midst of the ocean beyond the gates of Hercules,fonning the middle point of the western hemisphereand the exact antipodes of Jerusalem. On thismountain are the successive planes or spheres ofpurgatory, culminating in the terrestrial Eden, fromwhich the ascent opens into the lowest of theplanetary heavens or abodes of saved souls.The assignment of souls to their severa! degreeslad kinds and places of punishment and rewardfmoIves a classification of moral virtues partlytraceable to the Aristotelian ethies and partly tothe t h ~ l o g y of the Christian Fathen; and theclllcussions introduced, here and there, of profoundtbeoIogical tapies rcveal the poet's familiarity with


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12 Dante and Swedenborg.the best fruits of both the philosophy and theologyof ail the ages that had preceded him. 50 we findthe man mounting with his theme; minute, blunt,and familiar in his descriptions of the Inferno; inthe Paradiso his language wears the garb of anarchangel, dazzling us with its splendour and opening to us vistas of unsearchable light. l t is saidthat his name was, in its original form, Durante,and so his whole name, Durante Allighieri, mighthe said to mean the Enduring Winged One. Andwith an eagle's flight his imagination, his ardour,and his philosophy and Christian faith combined,mount straight upward to the sun, the more andmore unhindered in his gaze as he scars away fromearth.

But whether, taking him in his widest andsublimest capacity as a poet, or in his most localand personal narrowness as an exiled and embitteredFlorentine, and giving due credit to bath contemporary and older philosophy and theology for hisideas, whether of earth or heaven or of the natureof man, wc shaH still, 1 bclicvc, find in Dante muchthat is difficult to trace literally to any e'arliersource, much that seems wholly heyond and abovethe ordinary thcological scope ofChristian teaching,much that in its strong, direct dec1aring of thingsuntold before, makes the poet seem to speak ratherIike a seer and prophet than like a mere rhymsterof the sacred fictions of his time.1 refer especially to certain broad features of theplan of the poem, involving principles of c1assifica-


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D4" 4"" Swedenborg. '3tian which bear a close resemblance to those ofSwedenborg, and also to certain ideas and defini-tions, both of human and Divine nature, whichgleam with the unmistakable Iight of revealed truth.That tbese were Dever understood (ully by even thepoet himself, in aIl their deepest significance, in (actas anything more than poetic intuition or invention,may he readily admitted; that they Dever havebrought to man any accredited Divine message isalso truc; but that theyare in reality foregleams ofthat great dawn of light which has in this later timerisen upon the world through the revelations grantedto Swedenborg, and that the great poem is thus richin a wisdom whose worth will rather brighten thandiminish in lustre as it is brought under the Iight ofthe knowledge DOW revealed, wc may confidentlybelieve. By the sicle of its numerous passagesluminous with spiritual truth, we shaH indeed findothers in dose contiguity 50 intrinsica11y absurd, 50grossly offensive to our sense of charity and ofjustice, or characterized by so rigid and blind anadberence to the orthodoxy of the poet's time,wbetber in things theological, political, or scientific,tbat we can he in no danger of forgetting the frailbuman authorship of the poem and the wide dis-tinction that must ever he drawn hetween this epicof medi:eval imagination and the great relationwlch now cames ta us, in terms of unmistakableauthority, ex visis li auditis, from .. things heardand seen." Nothing could more emphaticallydeclare this distinction than the words with which


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14 Dante and SwedenIJorg.Swedenborg, in aIl the consciousness of bis sacredand responsible mission as a revealer of thingsbitherto kept secret from the foundation of theworld, explains the purpose of his intromission intothe spiritual world. Here we find nothing of thegrey twilight of the land of dreams, nothing of thesplendours of ecstatic vision j rather is it the plaintestimony of a man charged with an importantmessage to his fellow-men, of which he was moremindful that the substance be truly given thanthat the form should be pleasing to the recipientHenry James, sen., says of Swedenborg's style ofwriting:

cc His books are a dry, unimpassioned, unexaggerated exposition of the things he daily saw and heardin the world of spirits, and of the spiritual laws whichthese things illustrate; with scarcely any effort whateverto blink the obvious outrage his experiences offer tosensuous prejudice, or to conciliate any interest in hisreader which is not pronlpted by the latter's own originaland unaffected relish of the truth. Such sincere books,it seems to me, were never before written" (Su!Jstanceand Sluzdow).Dante begins his poem by narrating how,-Midway upon the joumey of our life1 found me in a dark and dreary woodWhere the straight way to me no more appeared.. . . . . . . . .Nor know 1 how to tell how 1 did come there,So full of sleep was 1 at that strange moment jWhen the true way 1 had abandoned. \,He faUs in with three wild beasts, and lin histerror cornes upon the shade of Virgil, who\ otrers


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Da"', arui Swedet


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16 Dante and Swedenborg.cc Lest therefore such denial, which reigns especially with

those who have much wisdom of the world, should alsoinfect and corrupt the simple in heart and the simple infaith, it has been given me to he together with the angels,and to speak with them as man with man, and also to seethe things which are in the heavens and in the hells, andtbis during thirteen years; and now to descrihe themfrom things seen and heard, hoping that thus ignorancemay he enlightened and incredulity dispelled" (Introduction to Heaven and Hell).ln what manner, then, we are led to inquire, does

the picture drawn in the Divina C01nmedia bearthe test of that light of actual knowledge whichhas now, according to this declaration, been givento the world ?To trace in detail all the coincidences of description between the poem of Dante and the Heaven

and Hell of Swedenborg \vould require volumesrather than the few pages at our disposaI. Themost 1 can attempt will be to point out a few of theremarkable analogies and resemblances betweenthe two works, leaving the reader at his pleasure topursue the subject more into particulars.-

The first thing 1 would call attention to is theevery-day, human reality which Dante gives to thespiritual world. No world is more substantial,visible, and tangible, or crowded with more busy, For a study of tbis kind 1 know of no English work more helpfulthan the very interesting volume entitled, A SAadow of Dante j kingan Essq t()1JJ(Jrds stud)'ingHimself, His Wor/d, and His Pi!grimage,by Maria Francesca Rossetti. London: Rivingtons. 1871. Fora translation, 1 believe Longfellow's to he far superiOl:, to any other.


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17practical. human activity than the spheres visitedby the poet's imagination. This is no world ofgbosts or of shades leading an unconscious exist CRee until sorne future judgment-day shall wakethem to lire again; theyare all intensely alive ROW.and alive as men and women in buman bodies,recognizable and still possessing ail the leadingtraits of character that they had in the world. Ofthis human reality of the liCe after death Sweden.borg writes as follows :"That man when he passes out of the naturaI worldinto the spiritual, as is the case wben he dies, cameswith him ail things that are his, or which belong to himu a man, except his earthly body, has becn testified tome by manifold cllperience; for man _hen he enters theapiritual world, or the li{e afier death, 15 in a body as inthe werld; to appearance there is no difference, sineehe does not perceive or see any ditrerence. Butbis body is then spiritual, and th us separated or puri-6ed {rom earthly things. and when what is spiritualtouches and sees .hat is spiritual. it is just as .ben _bati l Datural touches and sees wbat is natural: benoe a man.,wben he bas become a spirit, does not know otbenriseban tbat be is in bis body in .hicb he was in the world,lDCl thUI does not know that he bas deceased. A manspiril also enjo)'1 every externat and internai JenSe wbichhe enjoyed in the world j be sees as before, he bears ands:pes as belon:. he also smetls and tastes, and .hen heIl touehed. he (cels the touch as before; be aIso longs.deIireI, craves, lhinu. reftects, is afl'ected. loves. .illSt asbefare; and he wbo is deligbted with s t u d ~ reads andwrilel u befOre. In a word. "ben a man passes (romClDe Hfe ale the ether, or from one world iolO the other.ft i l u i l he pased from one place into another; and he__ with 6im aU things wbich he posKmtl in binwetf

B


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18 Dante and Swedenborg.as a man, so that it cannot he said that the man aCterdeath, which is only the death of the eartbly body, haslost anything of himself. He also carries with him thenatura} memory, for he retains aIl things whatsoeverwhich he has in the world heard, seen, read, learned, andthought, from earliest infancyeven to the end of life; thenaturalobjects however which are in the memory, becausethey cannot be reproduced in the spiritual world, arequiescent, as is the case with a man when he does notthink Crom them; but still theyare reproduced when itpleases the Lord" (Haven and Hell, no. 461).

It is true, Dante speaks of the Last Judgment asyet to come, but the wicked are in hell already,notwithstanding, and aIl the change the final judgment will effect in their case will be to finally closethe pits which still remain open only for more toenter. So are the good already enjoying theblessed life of heaven, and the spirits not yet purified are lingering a longer and shorter time in theouter courts according to the preparation they needto undergo. In a word, it is a perfectly humanworld that Dante visits; it is almost a Florentineworld in parts, so real and familiar does the poetmake its scenes; even as Swedenborg speaks ofcertain cities of earth having their counterparts inthe world of spirits. Unlike Milton, who makeshis personages wear a kind of stage-like, artificialdignity in speech and bearing corresponding withbis 10fty theme, Dante puts the commonest, everyday phrases into his conversations, and so intenselyhuman are the very griefs and sorrows he describes,that we are moved by a pathos that is irresistible.


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Dante a u Swedenborg'. 19I t may seem as as if the realism of Dante'sdescription must he largely destroyed by his intro-duction of griffons, centaurs, and other monstrousforms more suggestive of pagan mythology than of

ordinary human experience; but it is weil to re-member that even the monsters of mythology werenot without a cause and a meaning, often a verypractical one; and how large a part such actualperversions and distortions of humanity do actuallyplay in the real hells of Swedenborg, we need onlyread such passages as the foUowing to learn :

.. At the apertures (to tbe infernal societies), whicb arecalled the gates of hell, for the most part appears amonster which in general represents the fonn of thosewho are within. The fierce passions of thase who d'Weilthere are then at the same time represented by dreadfuland atrocious things, the particular mention of which 1omit. . . . From an inspection of those monstrous fonnsof spirits in the hells, which as was said are ail fonns ofcontempt of others, and of menaces against thase whodo not pay them bonour and respect, also fonns ofhatred and revenge against those who do not favourthem, it appeared evident that all in general were formsof the love of self and the love of the world; and thatthe evils of which they are the specific forms derive tbeirorigin from these two loves" (HetlfJen and Hdl, nos. 553,554).

We have next to notice that in the generaldivisions of the spiritual world, Dante adheres tothe numbers three, seven, and nine, in a mannerwholly in accord with their real spiritual meaning;and in his trinal classification there is a strongsemblance of the doctrine of the degrees of the

1


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20 Dante and Swedenborg.human mind. These degrees are thus described brSwedenborg :

cc He who does not know how it is with Divine order asto degrees, cannot comprebend how the heavens are distinct, nor even what the internaI and the external manare. Most people in the world have no other notionconceming interiors and exteriors, or concerning superiorsand inferiors, than as of something continuous or ofwhat coheres by continuity from purer to grolser; andyet interiors and exteriors are not continuous with eachother but discrete. There are degrees of two kinds;there are continuous degrees and degrees not continuous.Continuous degrees are as the degrees of the decrease oflight from flame even to its obscurity; or as the degreesof the decrease of sight, from those things which are inlight to those which are in shade; or as the degrees ofthe purity of the atmosphere, from the lowest part of itto the highest: distances determine these degrees. Onthe other hand, degrees not continuous, but discrete, arediscriminated as prior and posterior, as cause and etrect,as what produces and what is produced. He who ex-amines will see, that in all and each of the things in theuniversa1 world, whatever they are, there are such degreesof production and composition; namely, that from one isanother, and from the other a third, and so on. He whodoes Dot procure to himself a perception of these degreescannot possibly know the distinctions of the heavens,and the distinctions of the interior and exterior facultiesof man; nor the distinction between the spiritual worldand the natural world; nor the distinction between thespirit of man and his body. Hence he -cannot understand what and whence correspondences and representations are, nor what influx is. Sensual men do not comprehend these distinctions, for they make increments anddecrements even according to these degrees, continuous ;hence they cannot conceive of what is spiritual otberwisethan as apurer natural. . .


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22 Da"'e and Swedenborg.then he cornes iota heU, because that conjunclion is heUwith him. This conjunction Is made in the world ofspirits, since man is thcn in a middle statc. I t Is alike,whether you say the conjunction of the understandingand the will, or the conjunction of truth and good "(Hflflen and Rdl, no. 4U).The purgatory or intermediate world betweenheU and heaven corresponds to the world of spirits

of Swedenborg in 50 far as it is the place of pre-paration for heaven for ail those dcparting (rom thisworld who can he saved ; but those who are fit oolyfor hen are carried thither al once acress the clarkflood of Acheron, according to the poet; whereaswc are taught in Swedenborg that al! those whodie, both good and bad alike, enter the intermediateworld of spirits, and that there thcy undergo thejudgment, and are prepared for their future loteither in the realms above or bclow. Swedenborg,however, draws this distinction between the use ofthis intermediate world for those who can andthose who cannat be saved, that the former undergothere the three states, namely, "of their exteriors"and" of their interiors," which two states constitutetheir judgment, or the determination oftheir rulinglove, and the third state which is that of "instruc-tion and preparation" for heaven.

.. This third state is therefore only for those .....ho comeinto heaven and become a n g e l ~ but not for those whocome ioto hell, sin tbese cannot be instructed, andtheir second state is alsa their third" (lftafH1f and !,Htll,no. 512). 1


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Dante and Swedenborg.1ndeed we read that there ar e sorne

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"who immediately alter death are either lalten up ;ntoheaven, or cast into hell. Tbose who are immedatelytaken up into heaven are those who have been regenerated,and thus prepared for heaven in the world. Thosc whoare 50 regenerated and prepared that they have need onlyta reject natura] impurities with the body, are bomeimmediately by the angels into heaven. 1 have scen themta1r.en up seon aCter the hour of dealh. But those whohave been interiorly wicked, and exteriorly, as to appear-ance, good, thus who have filled their malignity withdeceitand have used goodness as a means of deceiving, areimmediately cast into hen" (HltlfN1l aM Hell, no. 49r).Here it rnay he weil to notice that in Dante as

in Swedenborg aU the b od il y con di ti on s and sur-roundings of souls in the other world, are reallyrepresentatives and effects of inward moral con-ditions. For in a letter to one ofhis patrons Dantewrites:

" The subject of ail the work, acpted literally only, isthe state of souls aCter death, taken simply; becauserespecting il and around i l the ptocess of ail the worktevolves. But if the work is accepted allegorically, theaubject is man, in 50 far as by free-will meriting anddemeriting he is amenable to the justice of reward andpunisbment" (hile, /0 Caf. Gram della &ala, 7) 7\.1


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Dante and Swedenborg. 25to overeome, which is pride. AU the terraces arecomparatively easy to climb aCter this one ispused.

Wc now ",ere mounting up the !laCTed stain,And il appeared to me by far more easyTban on the plain il has appeared before.Whenee I? "My Muter, say, ",hat heavy thingHu been uplifted (rom me, so that hardi)'Aught of fatigue is Celt by me in walking?"

He answered: "Whcn the P's which have remalnedStill in thy face, aImasl obliterate,Shan _holly. as the I1rst is, he erased,Thy (eet shall he 50 vanquished by good-willThal not alone they shall not (cel fatigue,But nrging up will he to tbem delight."(hrgal"io XII. 1140 ./A"Kftl/ouIs IrtltU/GtiIM..)

Thus with the overcoming of pride more thanhale of our human battle is (ought, and the" waythat leads to heaven is not 50 difficult as has becnsupposed." Moreover, the doctrine seems distinctlyatated bere that, as each evil is overcome in tempta!ion, the Lord gives a good will or good affection inIts place which makes the way upward ever more adelight and Jess a labour. Sins of appetite and ofworldly love are placed above those of pride, envy.aDd anger. being more extemal and less deadly.Jt iJ in the Purgatorio that, perhaps more thanin any other part of the whole poem, we find ourcommon human sympathies appealed to, and feeIthe singular tenderness that fonns 50 beauful trait of the great poet. We find ourselves not


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2 6 Dante a n Swedenborg.wholly lifted above the earthly atmospheres, 50that, as it were, the sound of church bells, thechant of evening hymn, the old, familiar anthemssung by the Church on earth through centuriesafter centuries, and the words of the old Bible,still linger in our ears.

Of this first state of man on his entrance at deathinto the spiritual world, Swedenborg teaches :cc The spirit of man is held in its last thougbt when thebody expires, until it returns to the thoughts which arefrom its general or ruling affection in this world". . . .

cc His first state after death is similar to his state in theworld, because then he is similarly in the externals ofhislife. Hence it is that he then knows no otherwise than thathe is still in the world, unless he pays attention to thosethings which present themselves, and ta those which weresaid to him by the angels when he was raised up, that heis now a spirit. Thus one life is continued into the other,and death is only the passage. Because the spirit ofman recentIy departed from the worId is such, thereforehe is then recognized by his friends, and by those whomhe had known in the world; for spirits perceive this, notonly Crom his face and speech, but also from the sphereof his life when they approach. Every one in the otherliCe, when he thinks of another, p r e s ~ n t s also to himselfhis face in thought, and at the same time sorne thingswhich are oC bis life; and when he does this, the otherbecomes present, as if he was sent for and called. Thisexists in the spiritual world Crom the Cact that thoughtsare there communicated, and that there are not suchspaces there as exist in the natural worId. Hence itis that an when the}' first come into the other life, arerecognized by their friends, their relatives, and thoseknown to them in any way; and also that they talktogether, and aCterwards associate according to their


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Da"te and Swedenborg.friendship in the world. 1 have frequently heard thattbose who have come from the world, have rejoiced atseeing their friends again, and that their friends in turnhave rejoiced that they had come to them" (Ifeatlt" aun,II, nos. 493, 494).

Ailer this first state, according to Swedenborg,f01l0ws the se


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28 Dante and Swedenborg.victory in the words of the corresponding blessing(rom Matt V., and the approach of the liberatingange! is thus described :

Towards us came the being beautiful,Vested in white, and in his countenanceBuch as appears the tremulous morning star.One penitent is heard softly singing the famniarcomplin hymn, CI Te lucis ante terlll.inum J I_CC Before

the ending of the day," when .'Twas DOW the hour that tumeth back desire tln those who sail the sea, and melts the heartThe day they've said to their sweet friends farewell,And the new pilgrim penetrates with love,If he doth hear Crom far away a heUThat seemeth to deplore the dying day.A great company ofnewly-arrived spirits brought

by the angel of death to the shores of this world oftrial, is heard chanting altogether in one voice thePsalm, ccWhen Israel ,vent out of Egypt" ; and asthe gate is opened admitting to the first terrace, T,D",,,, Lmu/m,,1U is heard resounding from within.At length from the suffering throng of the penitents(or pride-

-more or less bent downAccording as they more or less were laden,and of ,vhom-

- h e who had most patience in his looks,\Veeping did seenl to say, cc 1 cao no more,JI19 heard this utterance of the Lord's Prayer:


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Dant, and Swedenborg. 29Our Father, Thou who dwellest in the heavens,

Not circumsc::ribed, but (rom the greater loveThou bearest to the lirst effects on high,Praisec\ he Thy Name and Thine OmnipotenceBy every creature. as befitting il,1'0 render thanks to Tby sweet effluence.Come unto us the peace of Th)' dominion,For unto il we cannot of ourselves,I f il come not, wilb a11 our intellect.Even as Thine a'Wn angels of their willMake sacrifice to Thee. hosanna singing.50 ma)' ail men rnake sacrifice of thei",.Give unto us this day our


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30 Dante and Swedenborg.And Cree volition, which, if some fatigue

In the first battles with the heavens it sutrers,Afterwards conqers ail, if weIl 'tis nurtured.To greater Corce and to a better nature,Though free, ye subject are, and that creates

The mind in you the heavens have not in charge.Hence if the present world doth go astray,ln you the cause is, be it sought in you.

(Purgatorio XVI. 67-85.)Of this free volition of man, or his fol1owing hislife's ruling love as determining his future state, andno intervention of God's mercy, which woulddestroy that freedom, Swedenborg teaches:cc 1 can testify Crom much experience that it is impos-sible to implant the liCe of heaven in those who have inthe world led a life opposite to the life of heaven. Therewere some who believed that they should easily receiveDivine Truths after death, when they heard them from the

angels, and that they should believe thelD, and shouldthen change their lives, and thus could be received intoheaven. But this was tried with very Many, yet only withthose who were in such a belief, to whom the trial waspermitted in order that they might know that repentanceis not given aCter death. Some of those with whom thetrial was made, understood truths and seemed to receivethem, but as soon as they turned to the life of their love,they rejected them, and even spoke against them. Somerejected them immediately, being unwilling to hear them.Some were desirous that the life of their love, which theyhad acquired in the world, might be taken away fromthem, and that angelic life, or the life of heaven might beinfused in its place. This likewise, by permission, wasaccomplished, but when the life oC their love was takenaway, they layas dead, and had no longer the use of theirfaculties. From these and other kinds of experience the


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Dante and Swedenborg. 3'simply good were instructed, that the lire of any one canonot in any wise he changed alter dealb, and lhat evil lifecannot in any degree he transmuted iota good liCe, orinfernal life iota angelic, inasmuch as every spirit, (romhead to foot, is in quality such as his love is, and thencesuch as his life is, and thus to transmute this life ioto theopposite is altogether to destroy the spirit. The angel!declare tbat il were easier to change a night-bird iota adave, and an owl iota a bird of paradise, than an infernalspirit iota an angel of heaven. Man aCter death, there(ore, remains of such a quality as his Iife had beenin the world From these things il may DOW he manifest,that no one caR he received iota heaven by Immediatemerey" (Ifeaven and Rtil. no. 531)'

1 cannot lcave this brier notice of the Purgatoriowithout quoting a few lines of rare beauty, describingthe appearing to the poet of two noted women, theone supposed to he identified with the CountessMatilda of Tuscany, a wealthy and zealous adherentof the Guelph party in the eleventh century;and the other the saintly Beatrice, who on earthhad been the idol of the poet's early love, andafterwards had, in his almost religious devotion,become transfigured into the embodiment of celestial wisdom, and who as such now, when theearthly Eden is reached on the uppermost plain ofpurgatory, is ready ta conduct Dante upwardthrough these heavenly spheres which the unbapUze

And la 1 my further course a stream eut offWbicb toward the left: band witb its !ittle wavesBent down the grau that on ils margin spraDg.


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32 Dante and Swedenborg.With feet 1 stayed, and with mine eyes 1 passedBeyond the rivulet, to look uponThe great variety of the fresh May;And there appeared to me (even as appears8uddenly something that doth turn asideThrough very wonder every other thought)A lady all a10ne, who went along8inging and culling floweret after floweret,With which her pathway was ail painted over.

(Purgatorio XXVIIL 24.)A great procession is seen in which patriarchs,prophets, and eiders, the symbolic living beings ofEzekiel's vision, the eagle and the lion typical ofourLord's Divine and human natures, the theologicaland the cardinal virtues, the evangelists and apostles,pass by in impressive pomp amid the shining ofthe seven golden candlesticks and the singing ofhosannas; and at last the descent ofBeatrice is thusannounced:

Ere now have 1 beheld as day began,The eastern hemisphere aU tinged with rose,And the other heaven with fair serene adorned ;And the sun's face, uprising, overshadowed80 that by tempering influence of vapoursFor a long interval the eye sustained it;Thus in the bosom of a cloud of flowersWhich from those hands angelical ascended,And downward fell again inside and outOver her snow-white veil with olive cinct,Appeared a lady under a green mandeVested in colour of the living flame.(Purgatono XXx. 23.)

Is there not a kind of heavenly atmosphere


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III.THE HELLS.

ACCORDING to Dante the hells like the heavensare nine in number, but exist in three grand divisionsor degrees. These three degrees of the hells maybe named those of Incontinence, FoUy, and Malice.Incontinence comprises the bodily lusts and pas-sions, the victims ofwhich are punished in the uppercircles and in descending arder; these are lascivious-ness, gluttony, avarice with prodigality, and angerwith melancholy. Themiddle circle or intermediatedegree is occupied by the sins of folly, or to use thepoetJs term, bestialism, by which he means thatcharacter cc like unto the beast that perisheth," whichbelongs to him who cc is in honour and understandethnot" Sins of heresy, infidelity, and materialismare here included-in a word of the cc fools thathave said in their hearts, There is no God."Beneath these are the hells of malice in theirdescending degrees, ~ i v i d e d chiefty into the twoclasses, of the hells of violence and the hells offraud and treachery.Here we see a division corresponding to the threedegrees of the human mind, the natural, the spiritual,and the celestial, but with their respective love


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Dante and Swedenborg. 35perverted to their opposites. In the bells thesebecome degrees of the natural mind, for thespiritual and celestial degrees are oever opened inthose who go there, and the trine is that of theperverted sensual appetites, the perverted scientificand rational faculties, and the perverted inmostlove. Wc read in Swedenborg:

.. Most of the heUs are tbreefold, the superior ones with-in a p p e a r i n ~ in thick darkness, because inhabited hy thosein the falslties of e v i ~ but the nferior ones appearingl1ery, because inhabited by those who are in the evilstbemselves. In the deeper hells are thase who haveacted interiorly from evil, but in the less deep those: whohave acted exteriorly" (HtnJe1f attd Htl!, no. 586)-

Now it is not a Uttle remarkable that in the lowestclrcles of hell, among the lowest of the malicious,Dante places the treacherous and fraudulent, andthese emhrace a11 seducers, ftatterers. hypocrites,discord breeders, and thieves ; and Swedenborg says,in treating of the firth Commandment, ., Thou shaltnot steal:"

10 The evil of theft enters more deeply inta a man thanany other evil. because it is conjoined with cunning anddeceit; and cunning and deceit insinuate themselves eveninto the spiritual mind of a man, wherein ia his thoughtwith the undeutanding" (Dod,im ofhJt, no. 81).The trinal division of the heUs follows that of thebaveRS in, of course, an inverted arder. And astbcre are the three heavens corresponding to thecelestiaJ, spiritual, and natura] degrees, sa must therehe corresponding hells.


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36 Dante and SwetienbfJrg.cc Inasmuch as in general there are three heavens, there

fore also there are in general three hells: the lowest whichis opposed to the inmost or third heaven, the Middlewhich is opposed to the Middle or second heaven, and thebighest which is opposed to the lowest or first heaven"(HeafJe" and Hell, no. 542).The lowest of the hells must therefore be inhabited by those who are in the most intense lust ofdominion from self-love, and in the most intense

hatred to the Lord. Dante caUs these the violentand the fraudulent, observing a kind of distinctionioto the two kingdoms of the voluntary and theinteUectual, but still placing the fraudulent at thebottom because of the interior nature of theircunning and deceit.The love of falsity and the selfish love of theworld occupy the middle degree, corresponding to

the perverted rational principle, and here Danteplaces the City of Dis, the habitation of the fools,or those who have become as beasts throughinfidelity and heresy. Of these two hells, namely,of the perverted loves of the world and of self whichconstitute, we may say, the corruption and death ofthe spiritual and celestial degrees of man's mind,Swedenborg says :

cc The hells in the western quarter are the worst of ail,and are most horrible; in these are they who in the worldhave been in the love of self, and thence in' the contemptof others and in enmity against those who did not favourthemselves. It is their greatest delight to exercise cruelty;but this delight in the other life is turned against themselves. . The dreadfulness of the hells decreases from


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Dante and Swedenborg. 37the northern quarter to the southern, and likewise towardthe east. To the east are they who have been haugbty,and have not believed in a Divine, but still have notbeen in such hatred and revenge, nor in such deceit, asthey who are in a greater depth there in the westernquarter" (Hlavel'l aM ffi//, no. 587).How horrible these hells are, how grievous thepunishments there suffered, how gloss and revolting

the delights of evil in which the wicked find theirlife, and how monstrous the forms into which theirbodies are distorted, we are enabled by Swedenborgto judge from the examples he bas given in Heavtnand Hell, and especially when we reRect tbat therewere seen things so revolting that he was not permitted ta reveal them. He tells us of the appearance as of ruined cities and houses arter fires, ofhabitations offilth; ofbarren, sandy deserts, raggedrocks and dark caves and dens, chasms and wbirlpools and bogs and lakes of fire (see nos. 583-587).Of the appearance of those in hell we read :"In general they are forros of their own evils; thw ofcontempt of others, of hatred of various kinds, and ofvarious kinds of revenge. Fierceness and crue1ty fromtheir interiors are manifest through ail their forms: but",hen others commend, venerate, and worship them, their(aces are contracted and have an appearance of Kladnesshom deljghl In general their faces are dreadful andvoid of life like corpses; in sorne black; in sorne fierylike little torches; in sorne disfigured with sores andulcers; in some no face appean, but in its stead sornethinghairy or bony; and in sorne teeth on1y are exhibited"(Hat'ln and Iftl l, no. 553).What reader of Dante will not recalJ here that


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Dante and Swetknborg. 39One further interesting coincidence lies in thedoctrine given and the pictures the poet drawsregarding the intense cold of the lowest hells.

Dante in reaching the circ1e, next ta the abyss itselfwhere Lucifer is held fro7.en in the ice, cornes uponthose " whose tears, congealing evcn as they sprang,blocked up the cavity of the eye with ice, whichwhile permitting sight greatly increased torment bystopping up the vent of pain."And one of the moumful of the freezing rind.,Cried unto us: 0 spirits cruel, 50As that the tinal frest is given ye,Take from my face the hardened veils that 1May vent the sorrow which impregns my heart,A little, ere again the weeping freeze.

And Swedenborg in speaking of the tire of hellsays:.. I t is to he known that tbose who are in the hells arenot in tire, but that the tire is an appearance j for tbeyare not sensible there of any buming, but only of a heatsueb as they experienced in the world. The appearanceof tire is from correspondence,. for love corresponds totire, and aU tbings which appear in the spiritual worldare according to correspondences.

f i The ahove described tire or infernal heat is tumed iotaintense cold when heat from heaven nows in ; and thenthe infernal inhabitants shiver like those who are seizedwith a cold fever, and are likewise inwardly tonncnted "(Htatltn andHIJ, nos. 571, 572).


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IV.THE HEAVENS.

THE heavens, like the hells, in Dnte, are dividedinto three great divisions according to mental traitswhich prevail in them. Thus between the heavensof the more or less sanctified will, those whoseaffections cc are still within the reach of the earth'sshadow," being placed below, and those of pure,unshadowed heavenly love being above, thereintervenes the mediate or transitional heaven of theunderstandirig sanctified by the wisdom and know-ledge growingoutoffaith and true heavenly doctrine.Here then, as in the hells, is clearly seen a distinctionof the heavenly societies which corresponds to thenatural, the intellectual or spiritual, and the inmostor celestial degrees of the human mind as taughtby Swedenborg.

ccThere are three heavens, and these most distinct (romeach other; the inmost or third, the middle or second,and the lowest or first. They (ollow in succession, andsubsist together, as the highest ofman, which is the head,his middle, which is the body, and the lowest, which isthe (eet; and as the highest part o( a house, its middle,and its lowest. In such order also is the Divine whichproceeds and descends (rom the Lord: thence; (rom thenecessity of order, heaven is three(old.


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Dante and SwedenIJorg. 41..The Divine which fio"'l in from the Lord and ilreceived in the inmost or third heaven, is called celestial,and hence the angels who are there are called celestialangels. The Divine which fio",s into the second or middleheaven, i, called spiritual, and henre the angels ",ho are

tbere are caUed spiritual angels. But the Divine whichfio"l in from the Lord and is received in the lowest orfint beaven, is called natural. But because the naturalof that heaven is not as the natural oC the world, but bas init the spiritual and celestial, therefore that heaven is calle


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42 Dante and SwedenIJorg.the inmost heaven, and thus nearest to the Lord, beforethe eyes of other angels do not appear otherwise than asinfants, and some of them naked; for innocence is represented by nakedness without shame, as is read concemngthe first man and his wife in paradise (Gen. H. 25);wherefore aIso, when their state of innocence was lost,tbey were ashamed of their nakedness, and hid themselves(chap. iii. 7, 10, 1 1 ). In a word, the wiser the angelsare, the more innocent they are, and the more innocentthey are, the more they appear to themselves as infants;bence it is that infancy in the Word signifies innocence"(HeafJe" and Hel/, no. 341).

No one is in heaven who is not a worshipper ofChrist, either as having once looked forward, or asnow looking back to Him and His redemption.Central in this white rose of heaven is the lake ofDivine light whose circumference would outreachthe sun. And above and beyond this there is andcan be nought save the Alpha and the Omega, theFirst and the Last, the Beginning and the End, theeternal Trinity existing in the glorified Humanityof God incarnate. Says Swedenborg:

cc In the universal heaven no other is acknowledged forthe God of heaven but the Lord alone. They say there,as He Himself taught, that He is one with tlte FatM';tbat tM FatM' is in Him and He in tM FatM';that Ile tltat seetn Him, seetn tlle F a t M , ~ and that e'Oery..tlling M/y /J,oceet/eth Irom Him (John x. 30, 38; xiv.10, II; xvi. 13-15). 1 have often spoken with angelson this subject, and they have always said, that they can..not in heaven distinguish the Divine into three, sincethey know and perceive that the Divine is one, and thati t is one in the Lord. Theysaid, aIso, that those membersof the Church who come from the world, entertaining


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Dante and Swedenborg. 43an idea of three Divines, cannot he admitted intabeaven, sinee theirthought wanden from one to another;and it is not lawful there to think three and say one,because every one in heaven speaks from thought, forthere speech is cogitative, or thougbt-speaking. Thosetherefore who in the world have distinguished the DivineiDto three, and received a separate idea oonceming eacb.Ind have not made that idea one, and ooncentrated it inthe Lord, cannot he reeeived: for there is given in heavena communication of ail thoughts j on which account, ifone should come thither who thinks three and says one.he would he immediately discovered and rejected. Butit is to he known, that all those who have not separatedtnuh from good, or faith from love, in the other life, whennstructed, receive the heavenly idea conceming the Lord,that He is the God of the universe" (ItWe1l atul HlI.no. 2).

The nine heavens succeed one above anotheraccording to the order ofthe planets, and in visitingthem Dante seems to he conversingwith the inhabitants of the planets in succession, uDtil in the lasttwo or highest heavcns he reaches the abode of thefixed stars and the crystalline sphere which surrounds the Eternal Light.Beatrice, in explaining to Dante the appearanceof the saints from the highest in the spheres of thelower planetary hcavens, says :

These have not in any otber heaven their seatsBut all make beautiful the primai circle,And have sweet life in different degreesBy feeling more or less the elernal Breath.

They mowcd themselves here, not because allettedThis sphere bas been to them, but to give signOf the celestialll'hich is least exalted.


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44 Dante and Sweden6tWg.To speak thus is adapted ta your mind,

Since only through the sense it apprebendethWhat then it worthy makes of intellect.On this account the Scripture condescendsUnto your faculties, and feet and handsTo God attributes, and means something else ;And Holy Church under an aspect humanGabriel and Michael represent to youAnd him who made Tobias whole again.

(Pa,at/iso IV. 31-48.)Here we recognize a resemblance to whatSwedenborg teaches, not only concerning thedescent of angels from higher to lower heavens forpurposes of instruction, but aIso concerning thedescent of truths in the Word by means of corres-pondences from the celestial to the literaI sense.Regarding the descent of the Word by its succes-

sive adaptations to lower planes of the minds ofangels and men, we read in Swedenborg:cc From the Lord proceed the celestial, the spiritual, andthe natural, one aCter another. That which proceeds (romthe Divine Love is called celestial and is the DivineGood: that from the Divine Wisdom is called spiritual,and is Divine Truth: and the natura! is (rom both these,and is their combination in the lowest. ~ h angels ofthe Lord's celestial kingdom, of whom is the third or

highest heaven, are in the Divine proceeding from theLord which is called celestial, for they are in the good oflove from the Lord. Those o( the spiritual kingdom, ofwhom are the second or middle heaven, are in the Divineproceeding from the Lord which is called spiritual, forthey are in truths o( wisdom (rom the Lord. But meno( the Church in the world are in the Natural Divine


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Dant, and Swtdenborg. 45which alsa proceeds (rom the Lord. I t fo11ow5o t here-fore, that the Divine proceeding from the Lord to itsoutennost fonns descends by three degrees, and is n ame

wiee an ange! is a heaven in lcast fonn : (or heaven is notootside an angel, but within him; for his interiors,whK:b are o( his mind, are disposed inta the form o(beaven, thus (or the reception of ail things of heaven_bkh are without him. He alsa receives those tbingsIccording to the quality of the good which is in him&om the Lord: hence an angel is aIse a heaven...An entireangelic society sometimes appears as one, inthe form of an angel j which aise it bas becn granted teme by the Lord te Bee. When a150 the Lord appears inthe midst of the angel50 He does not then appear encompaIed by several, but as one [angel1 in angelic fonn.Theoce it is !hat the Lord in tbe Ward is called anqd j and a1so tbat an entire society is 50 caDed.


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46 Dante and Swedenborg.Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael are ooly angelic societies,wbicb are so named from their function " (HeafJe" andHell, nos. 53, 52).

ln the cc heaven of Mercury JI Beatrice unfolds toDante the doctrine or what she caUs the cc GranSentensia JI of the Incarnation, from which 1 willquote ooly the following remarkable lines :

By not submitting to the power that willsCurb for his good, that man who ne'er was bornDamning himself damned all his progeny ;Whereby the human species down belowLay sick for many centuries in great error,Till ta descend it pleased the Word ofGodTo where the nature, which from its own MakerEstrayed itself, He joined to Him in persanBy the sole act of His etemal love.(Pa,.atliso VII. 25-34.)

Continuing in this explanation, Beatrice statesthat after man cc by sin had become disfranchised,"there remained only two ways by which he couldhe restored to his pristine dignity and freedom :

Either that God through clemency aloneHad pardon granted, or that man himselfHad satisfaction for his folly made.But inasmuch as man in his limitations has nopower to render satisfaction for his sins :

Therefore it God behoved in His own waysMan to restore unto bis perfect life,-1 say in one, or else in both of tbem,meaning the two ways of justice and mercy :


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Dante and Swedenborg. 47But sinee the action of the doer is50 much more grateful, as it more presents,The goodness of the heart {rom wbich it issues,Goodness Divine, that doth imprint the world,Has bn conlented to proceed by eachAnd aIl Ita ways to lift you up agaiD;Nor ' lmt the tirst day and the final nightSucb high and such magnificent proceedingBf one or by the other, was or shall he ;For Cod more bounteous "as Himself to giveTc make man able to uplift himselfTban if He only of Himself had pardoned;And ail the ether modes were insufficientFor justice. were it not the Son of GadHimself had bumbled to become incarnate.

(Paradiso VII. t03.)This condescension of God to man's estate inorder to redeem it is thus stated by Swedenborg inhis Doel,.;,u concerning t k Ltwd (nos. 29-36) :.. The Lord (rom etemilY who is Jehovah look onHimself a buman nature in erder to save men: from theDivine in Himself He made the humanity Divine bymean. of temptations admitted into Himselr, the lut of

. .hicb temptations was the passion of the cross. ThusHe sucuively put ail' the humanity assumed from themother aDd put on a humanty from the Divine in Kimse14 and thi. is the Divine Human and the 'Son or God.'Thus Cod became man, as in first principles 10 in the lu tmdm.-"I t is when among the blessed in the heaven ofthe (reckoned at that lime as (ourth in theorder of the planets), that a voice instruets Danteregarding the vesture of Iight with wbich the saintsare clolhed,


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48 Dante and Swedenborg.- - A s long as the festivity

Of Paradise shaH he, so long our loveShaH radiate round about us such a vesture.Its brightness is proportioned to the ardour,The ardour to the vision; aljd the visionEquals what grace it bas above its worth.(Pa,adiso XIV. 37':'42.)

And it is. here that the holy circles or choirs "intheir revolving and their wondrous song" so showforth the joy of their life that the poet cries :Whoso lamenteth him that here we dieThat we may live above, has oever thereSeen the refreshment of the eternal raine

Here is beautifully expressed not only the truthwhich the Word utters in saying, cc He clothesHimself with light as with a garment," but also theinterior truth that it is the inner heat or ardour oflove that radiates this light, and that thus furnishesits own substance ,vith a visible forme The powerof vision is also said to be equal to the inwardreception of Divine grace in accordance with thetruth, that aIl the life, delight, and beauty of theangels is according to their acknowledgment thattheir life is from the Lord, that is, a" grace abovetheir own worth." Swedenborg thus speaks of theclothing of ~ h angels, and of the spheres of lightabout them :

cc The things which appear before the eyes of angels inthe heavens, and are perceived by their senses, appear andare perceived as much to the life, as the things which areon the earth appear to man; yea, Inuch more clearly,


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Dante and Swedenborg. 49distinctly, and perceptibly. The appearances which are&om this source in the heavens, are caUed nalap/JtaraNU,because they exist realty. 'Ibere are al50 given appearancesnot real, which are those things which i n d ~ e d appear, butdo not correspond ta the interiors. As angelic wisdomexceeds human wisdom in such a degrec that it is calledineffable, 50 likewise do ail things which are perceived bythem, and appear to them; sillce ail things which arepereeived by the angels, and appear te them, correspondto ther wisdom."The garmcnts with which angels are c1othed, corre-spond ta their intelligence; therefore ail in the heavensappear c10thed according to intelligence; and becauseone excels another in intelligence, one bas more excellentgarments than another. The most intelligent havegarments glowing as (rom Rame, sorne shining as (roml ~ b t ; the less intelligent haVI: bright and white garments,"theut brilliancy i and the still Jess intelligent havegarments of various colours; but the angels of the inMost heavens are ",lthout clothing... Because the garments of the angels correspond ta theirintelligence, therefore also they correspond to truth, sinceaU intelligence is (rom Divine Truth; whether thereforeyou say that angels are c10thed according to intelligence,or according to Divine Truth, it is the same thing. Thatthe garments of sorne glow as from flame, and those ofothen shine as from ligbt, is because fl3me corresponds tagood, and light to truth from good. That the garmentsor IOme are brightand .hitewithout brilliancy, and thaseoC othen of various colours, is because the Divine Goodand Trutb are lCS1 refulgent, and also are variously f t -ceived, with tbe less intelligent: brightness alsa, and whiteness correspond to truth, 3nd colour to it!l varieties. Thattbose in the inmost heaven are without clothing, is becausetbey are in innocence, and innocence corresponds tonudit," (Ht4fInI (1"" Hell, nos. 175, 177, 1 7 8 ~

The doctrine of the Divine operation (rom centreo


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to circumference is thus expressed by Dante, in thecourse of a discussion in the planet Jupiter regardingthe Divine justice and the fate of the heathen :

The primaI 'Vill, that in Itself is good .Ne'er from itself, the Good Supreme, has moved.So much is just as is accordant with It:No good created draws It to itselfBut It, by raying forth, occasions that... . Unto this kingdom neverAscended one who had not faith in ChristBefore or since He to the tree was nailed.But look thou, many crying are, "Christ, Christ! UWho at the judgment shall be far less nearTo Him than sorne shaH be who knew not Christ.Such Christians shaH the Ethiop condemn,When the two companies shaH be divided,The one forever rich, the other poor.

(Paradiso XIX. 86-111.)Regarding the salvation of the heathen, andespecially of the African race, Swedenborg thllswrites:"That the Gentiles are saved as weil as Christians,those may know who know what it is which makesheaven with man; for heaven is in man, and those whohave heaven in themselves come into heaven. Heavenin man is to acknowledge the Divine, and to be led bythe Divine. The first and primary thing of every religion

is, to acknowledge a Divine. A religion which does notacknowledge a Divine, is not a religion; and the preceptsof every religion have respect to worship, thus they teachhow the Divine is to be worshipped, so that the worshipmay he acceptable to Him; and when this is fixed inone's mind, thus as far as he wills it, or as far as he lovesit, so far he is 100 by the Lord. It is known that the


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Dante and Swedenborg. S'Gentiles live a moral life as weil as Cnristians, and tbatmani of them live a beUer 1ife than Christians... have been instructed on many occasions, that theGentiles who have 100 a morallife and in obedience andsubordination, and have 1ived in mutual charity accord-iog to tbeir religion, and have thence received somethingof conscience, are accepted in the other life, and arethere instrueted with solicitous cafe br ange1s. in thegoods and truths of Caith; and that when they are beinginstructed, tbey behave themselves modestly, intelligently,and wisely, and easily receive truths, and a r imbued" tb them. They have fonned to themselvcs no prin-ciples of falsity contnuy to the truths of (ait11, whichare to he shaken off, still \es!I scandais against the Lord,like many Christians, who cherisb no other idea of Himthan as of a comman man. The Gcntiles, 011 the contrary,...hen mey bear that Gad became Man, and thus mani-feste

ln his ascent into the higher heavens, Dante isexamined in succession by St Peter as ta his raith,


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D a ~ t e aM S w e d e ~ b o r g . 53The voice reveals il of the truthful AUlhar,Who says to Moses, speaking oC Himself.. r will make all My goodness pass before thee."Thou, too. revealest il to me, beginningThe Jaud evangel that proclaims the secretOf heaven and earth aboYe ail other ediet.Here Dante evidently refers to the opening of

S t John's Gospel: " ln the beginning was theWard, and the Ward was with God, and the Wardwas God ; " and then he conc1udes :The being of the world, and my own being,The death which He endured that 1 may live,And that which ail the faithful hope, as 1 do,With the forementioned vivid consciousness,Have dr.:awn me from the sea of love perverse,And of the night have placed me on the shore.The leave! wherewith embowered is ail the gardenOf the Elemal Gardener, do 1 loveAs much as He has granted them of good.That is to say that true love loves even the truthnot for its own sake but (or the good which is in it ;and then the poet continues:As SCIOn as l had ceased, a song most sweetThroughout the heaven resounded, and my bdy

Said witb the O1hers, " Holy, holy, holy !"(ParadiS{} XXVI. 16-69.)

The emanation of creative spheres from theDivine Love in the beginning, and thus the creationof the universe, not from notbing but from itself,by discrete degrees of proceeding, is thus beauti


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54 Da"le a"d SwedenIJorg.fully outlined by Beatrice's instruction to Dante inthe twenty-ninth canto :

Not to acquire some good unto H i m s e l ~Which is impossible, but that his splendourIn its resplendency May say cc Su6sisto 1"In His etemity outside of time,Outside aU other limits, as it pleased Him,Into new loves the Etemal Love unfolded.Of this unfolding of heaven and of all1ife out ofthe Divine Love, Swedenborg writes :"The Divine proceeding from the Lord is caUed inheaven DivineTru'th. This DivineTruth flows into heavenfrom the Lord out of His Divine Love. Divine Love, andthence Divine Truth, are comparatively as the fire of thesun "and the light thence, in the world; love as the fire ofthe sun, and truth thence as light from the sun. Fromcorrespondence also fire signifies love, and light the truth

thence proceeding. Thence it nlay be evident, what theDivine Truth proceeding from the Divine Love of theLord is, that it is in its essence Divine Good conjoined toDivine Truth; and because it is conjoined, it vivifiesaIl things of heaven, as the heat of the sun conjoinedto light in the world fructifies aIl things of the earth,as in the- time of spring and summer. It is otherwisewhen heat is not conjoined to light, thus when thelight is cold; then aIl things are torpid, and lie withoutlife. The Divine Good, which is compared to heat, is thegood of love with the angels, and the Divine Truth, whichis compared to light, is that by which and from which isthe good of love."That the Divine in heaven, which makes heaven, islove, is hecause love is spiritual conjunction; it conjoinsangels to the l"ord, and it conjoins them one with another ;and it so conjoins, that they are aU as one in, the sight ofthe Lord. Moreover, love is the very esse of life to every


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Dante and Sweden6org. 55one, hence from it an angel has !ife, and also man haslife. That from love is the inmost vital [principle) ofman, every one may know who considers; for from thepl'eSence of it he groW'5 warm, from the absence of it hegrows cold, and from the privation of l he dies. But itis to he known that the life of cvery one is such as hislove is" (Hlavm ami Hli, nos. 13, 14).

And of the inflnite multiplying of angelic formsaccording to the various modes of reception of theDivine life, we read :This nalure doth so multiply itselfln numhers, that there never yet was speechNor mortal faney that can go 50 far.And if thou notest that whieh is revealedBy Daniel, thou wilt see that in his thousandsNumber determinate is kept eonceaJed.The primai Light that ail irradiates itBy modes as many i5 received therein,As are the splendours wherewith 1t is mated.

The height bebold now and the amplitudeOf the etemal Power, sinee it hath made

HIeU 50 many mirrots, where 'tis broken,One in hself remaining as before.(Panuiiso XXIX, 130')It is from hence that the poet now mounts up inhis final ftight to the blessed vision of the Divine

Light in its various forms, as of a river and of,parks thence issuing, and of the ftowers upon itsbanks i of the Jake and the rose and the angelicbecs of which we read :- the other host, that ftyng .sees and singsThe glory of Him who doth enamour il,And the goodness tbat eteatoo it so noble,


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Dante and Swelknorg-.Even as a SW:lrm of becs that sinks in RowersOne moment and the next returns again1'0 where ilS labour ;s ta sweetness turned,Sank into the great Rower, that is adomedWith leaves sa many, and thenee reaseended1'0 where itslove abideth evermore.Their faces had they aU of living RameAnd wings of gold, and aU the rest so whiteNo snow unto that limit doth attain.

Then the poet beholds his Beatrice enthroned,and t h e " faithful Bernard," and Mary the motherof our Lord, the spheres of blessed infants, theangels and arehangels, and finally thus he tells, " a sbest he may," ofhis crowning vision o f the IncarnateGod,

Not because more than one unmingled substance\Vas in the living Light on which 1 looked,For It was always what ft was before,But through the sight, that fortified itselfln me, by looking, one appearance only1'0 me was ever changing as 1 changed.Within the deep and luminous subsistenceOf the H igh Light appeared ta me Three CrelesOf threefold colour and of one dimension,And by the Second seemed the First reReetedAs Iris is by Iris, and the ThirdSeemed Fire th30t equally from Bath is breatled.

C o m p r . ~ Ibis witb Swedenborg'. reverent Ilnd imfeasi'emention ofwhat he calls a mO$/. memorable e,enl : A J i f f 7 J i s ~ l l m :"MAJ,V TH !. MOTHKIt or Tl l l t LoItD once passed andappeared Ilbove my head in wbite raiment; Ihere me P',1ed amoment and lAid Ibal she w u the motber of the Lord, that le "'Illindeed bom or ber, bul that being made God He hlld pUI offll thehllmanity wbich He bad rrom her; .a tllllt now Ihe wonhif Himas he r Cod, and iSllnwilling tbllt an)' one ~ l Ilcknowledll Hlmas ber IOD .sinet ail in Iiim b Di'll :le" (Tnu Cn"sl;/UI. RigiMt,"',


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Dante and Swedenborg. 57Tbat Circulation, \ll"bic:h being thus conc:eivedAppeared in Tbee as a reflee:t.ed LightWhen 50mewhat contemplated by mine eyes,Within hself, oC Its own very colour,Seemed to me painted with our cffigy,Wherefore my sight was all absorbed therein.

Here the poet is referring to the Divine Humanityof the Lord as bearing the image o f our nature, andbeing the abject o f our s i g h l Compare Sweden-bor g's sublim e statement oC this truth:

.. Ali the angels in the heavens never perceive theDivine under any other Corm but the human; and whatis wonderful, thase who are in the superior heavenscannat think otherwise of the Divine. They are broughtinto that necessity oC thinking, from the Divine itselfwhich ftows in, and al50 from the fonn of heaven, aord-ing ta which their thoughts extend themselves around:for every thought which the angels have, has extensioninto heaven, and according ta that extension they haveintelligence and wisdom. Hence it is that ail thereacknowledge the Lord, because the Divine Human isgiven only in Him. These things have not only beenlold me by the angels, but it has al50 becn given me tapel'Ceive them, whcn elevated into the interior sphere ofbeaven. Hence il is manifcst, that the wiser the angelsare, the more c1early they percehe this; and hence it is,tbat the Lord appears ta them: for the Lord appean ina Divine angelic form, ,,'hich is the human, ta those whoacknowledge and belie"'e in a visible Divine, but not tathoee who ac1mowledge and believe in an invisibleDivine; for the former can see their Divine, but thelatter cannat" (Btow" a"d Htll, no. 79).


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Dante and Swedenborg. 59My thought in conducting my readers throughthis comparative study of Dante and Swedenborg

has becn not ta prove Dante a prophet, even thoughhe spoke often wiser than he knew, but ta show theunity of truth, and the power of revealed truth, tovivifyand reduce to order and beautyall the other-wise dcad and inert fragments of the tr ue th at liescattered here and there in the wide realrns of ourknowledge, whether of nature, art, or literature. Itis spiritual truth that quickens ail knowledge; andeven Dante, wide as is his repute and lofty his placearnong the great poets of the world, must yet cometo he read and studied with highcr cnjoyment, troerappreciation, and more profit by those who can readhim in the light afforded by Swedenborg, than hehas ever yet becn by even his warmcst adrnirersand profoundcst commentators.

F I . O U N C E , ITALV, 11189.

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"THE SPIRITUAL SENSE OF DANTE."*A REVIEW.

IN view of the materialistic tendency of thoughtprevailing at the present time, it is encouraging tafind a public writer recognizing a cc spiritual sense"in anything; but when the writer is one who holdsthe position ofDr. Harris, among the deeper thinkersof our time and country, and his topic the greatreligious poem of Latin Christianity, the " spiritualsense," so inquired into, becomes a subject of morethan ordinary interest

In the brief but very complete and in every way. interesting treatise by Dr. Harris, on cc The SpiritualSense of Dante's Divina Commedia," we have a newinterpretation added to the long catalogue of theexplanations of Dante, dating from the poet's ownstatement of the four ways in which a poem is tohe understood: "There is in a poem a literaI, anallegorical, a moral, and a mystical sense" (Dante'sConvito, Ch. 1.). But it is in neither of these sensesthat the new interpretation here offered us consists.Rather we must caU this of Dr. Harris the philo-

* cc The Spiritual Sense of Dante's Divina COl1zf1zedia," by W. T.Harris [United States Commissioner of Education]. New York:D. Appleton & Co., 1889.


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Tite Spirilu4l Sense ofDante. 61sophie interpretation, or that of the ground or the"supreme principle," in the knowledge of whichconsists, according to our reviewer, the .. angelicknowing" itself, as weil as the genuine poetic andprophetie faculty.The" spiritual sense" which the writer here discovers, is that which is grounded in philosophy. The Divina CQmmtdl," he says, "may he justlyc1aimed to have a spiritual sense, for it possesses a

philosophie system and admits of allegorical inter-pretation. 1t is /4r uceUence the religious poem ofthe world. And religion, Iike philosophy, dealsdirectly with a !lrst principle of the universe, whilelike poetry it c10thes its universal ideas in the garbof special events and situations, making themtypes and hence symbols of the kind which maybecome allegories."Any poem that "exhibits a supreme principleoperating in the affairs of a world, and heneeexhibits a philosophy realized or inearnated," as itwere: .. under the fonn of events and situationschosen ta he universal types," may he said ta bavea" spiritual sense" The discovery of this spiritualsense therefore must helong only ta philosophie in-sight, or ta the mind capable of apprehending these6rst principles oC things. But the poet's insigbtreaches Carther than any rormulated system ofphilosophy. and the" art structure or the poemreveals a deeper spiritual sense than is coveredby the Allegory." This art structure grows outof the poet's nationality, in Dante's case the


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62 Tne Sjn:rltual Sense of Dante.Roman, as distinguished from the Hebrew and theGreek.The Hebrew discovers the highest principlethrough the emotions of the heart; the Greekrealizes it intellectually, as the pure or essentialForm ; the Roman experiences it as will or volition.We would say, rather, as the act in which both thewill and the intellect find the outmost expressionand power. According to the view which regardsthe absolute first principle as Will, each being, inacting, acts upon itself and thereby becomes itsown fate. It creates its environment. The re-sponsibility of the free agent is infinite. And herefol1ows the interprettion, in the briefest forrn, ofthe deep ethical meaning of Dante's poern, as based,according to the author, on this poetic intuition ofthe supreme principle as will.

cc If the will of the free agent acts so as to make foritself an environment of deeds that are in harmony withits freedom, it lives in the ' Paradiso.' If it acts so asto contradict its nature, it makes for itself the ' Inferno.'

cc As the individual man by his will creates an environ-ment through society, therefore his deeds are to hejudged by their effect upon society, whether they re-enforce the freedom of others, or curtail that freedom."It is in Christianity that the perfect freedom andperfect responsibility of man is recognized, and thisis done in the Church's Doctrine of Hell as that of

the complete return of the deed upon the doer.cc A man can conjoin himself to the social whole or

cao sunder himself from it. He can on the one hand


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The Spiritual Sense ofDante. 63mediate himself through ail men, placing his personalintere51 al the most distant part of the universe, andseeking his own good through fint serving the interest o fall others; or he can seek his sellish ;nterest directly.and before that of ail others, 3.nd in preference to theirs.Thus he can malte (or himself one of two uuerly differentworlds, an Infemo or a Paradiso."

I t is on entering bel! that Virgil informs Dantethat here dwell the wretched people who have lostt h e " good of the intellect," meaning, according toArlstotle's doctrine of the highest good, the visionof absolute Truth and Goodness. The wicked donot sec God. T a them H e seems an extcmaltyrant, oppressing t he m a nd inflicting pain on them.They are conqucred but not obedient " T his stateis hell, and even this is the evidencc of Divine lovewhen rightly understood."

"Were Go d a fonnless abyss, as in the Oriental idea,ail finite heing would be lost in Him. and ail rebellion orimperfection would constitute annihilation. But with aChristian idea of Go d as pure Fonn the finite can sub-sitt as real an d true substance, Ynd Gad in pTotectingthe absolute free-will of the individual gives him immortal existence, even in hell. HeU is the alienationfrom Gad. but not annihilation. It arase with the creatingof f1nite things and theiT limita.tions, and it will exist aslong u the finite is created-that is etemally.

.. Before me [sa15 the inscription over the gate of heU]were no things created, but etemal: and etemal teendure. ... HeU therefore signifies the conti nuance offree.will, supported by Divine Grace. . . . I t is astateof rebelliob against the Divine world-order; the indi-ridual seeks his sel6sh good before the goad of hisfellowmen and instead of theiT goad. Accordingly he


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wills that humanity shaH he his enemies. . . . The contradiction hence arising exists in the shape of pain andhellish torment.

cc The sinner is in heU because he looks upon his ownpain, not as produced by his own freedom, but as thrustupon him undeservedly from without. . . . CouId he seethat his pain comes frolu his own act of freedom, fromhis opposition to the social wh

frank sewall dante and swedenborg london 1893

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