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VIII. THE DUCAL PALACE. 327
§ lx. Another notable point in Dante's system is the intensity of uttermost punishment given to treason, the peculiar
sin of Italy, and that to which, at this day, she attributes her
own misery with her own lips. An Italian, questioned as to
the causes of the failure of the campaign of 1848, always makes
one answer, " We were betrayed;" and the most melancholy
feature of the present state of Italy is principally this, that she
does not see that, of all causes to which failure might be attributed, this is at once the most disgraceful, and the most hopeless. In fact, Dante seems to me to have written almost
prophetically, for the instruction of modern Italy, and chiefly
so in the sixth canto of the " Purgatorio."
§ lxi. Hitherto we have been considering the system of the
" Inferno" only. That of the " Purgatorio" is much simpler,
it being divided into seven districts, in which the souls are
severally purified from the sins of Pride, Envy, Wrath,
Indifference, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust; the poet thus
implying in opposition, and describing in various instances,
the seven virtues of Humility, Kindness,* Patience, Zeal,
Poverty, Abstinence, and Chastity, as adjuncts of the Christian
character, in which it may occasionally fail, while the essential
group of the three theological and four cardinal virtues are
represented as in direct attendance on the chariot of the Deity;
and all the sins of Christians are in the seventeenth canto
traced to the deficiency or aberration of Affection.
§ lxii. The system of Spenser is unfinished, and exceedingly
complicated, the same vices and virtues occurring under different forms in different places, in order to show their different
relations to each other. I shall not therefore give any general
sketch of it, but only refer to the particular personification of
* Usually called Charity: but this virtue in its full sense is one of the
attendant spirits by the Throne; the Kindness here meant is Charity with a
special object; or Friendship and Kindness, as opposed to Envy, which has
always, in like manner, a special object. Hence the love of Orestes and
Pylades is given as an instance of the virtue of Friendship; and the Virgin's,
"They have no wine," at Cana, of general kindness and sympathy with
others' pleasure.
| Title | The stones of Venice - 2 |
| Creator | Ruskin, John |
| Publisher | J. Wiley |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1889 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000373 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | VIII. THE DUCAL PALACE. 327 § lx. Another notable point in Dante's system is the intensity of uttermost punishment given to treason, the peculiar sin of Italy, and that to which, at this day, she attributes her own misery with her own lips. An Italian, questioned as to the causes of the failure of the campaign of 1848, always makes one answer, " We were betrayed;" and the most melancholy feature of the present state of Italy is principally this, that she does not see that, of all causes to which failure might be attributed, this is at once the most disgraceful, and the most hopeless. In fact, Dante seems to me to have written almost prophetically, for the instruction of modern Italy, and chiefly so in the sixth canto of the " Purgatorio." § lxi. Hitherto we have been considering the system of the " Inferno" only. That of the " Purgatorio" is much simpler, it being divided into seven districts, in which the souls are severally purified from the sins of Pride, Envy, Wrath, Indifference, Avarice, Gluttony, and Lust; the poet thus implying in opposition, and describing in various instances, the seven virtues of Humility, Kindness,* Patience, Zeal, Poverty, Abstinence, and Chastity, as adjuncts of the Christian character, in which it may occasionally fail, while the essential group of the three theological and four cardinal virtues are represented as in direct attendance on the chariot of the Deity; and all the sins of Christians are in the seventeenth canto traced to the deficiency or aberration of Affection. § lxii. The system of Spenser is unfinished, and exceedingly complicated, the same vices and virtues occurring under different forms in different places, in order to show their different relations to each other. I shall not therefore give any general sketch of it, but only refer to the particular personification of * Usually called Charity: but this virtue in its full sense is one of the attendant spirits by the Throne; the Kindness here meant is Charity with a special object; or Friendship and Kindness, as opposed to Envy, which has always, in like manner, a special object. Hence the love of Orestes and Pylades is given as an instance of the virtue of Friendship; and the Virgin's, "They have no wine," at Cana, of general kindness and sympathy with others' pleasure. |
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