"Pàia 'l giorno pianger the si muòre."
Alas! why could not the great Tuscan have been superior enough to his personal griefs to write a whole book full of such beauties, and so have left us a work truly to be called Divine?]
[Footnote 17:
"Te lucis ante terminum;"—a hymn sung at evening service.]
[Footnote 18: Lucy, Lucia (supposed to be derived from lux, lucis), is the goddess (I was almost going to say) who in Roman Catholic countries may be said to preside over light, and who is really invoked in maladies of the eyes. She was Dante's favourite saint, possibly for that reason among others, for he had once hurt his eyes with study, and they had been cured. In her spiritual character she represents the light of grace.]
[Footnote 19: The first step typifies consciousness of sin; the second, horror of it; the third, zeal to amend.]
[Footnote 20: The keys of St. Peter. The gold is said by the commentators to mean power to absolve; the silver, the learning and judgment requisite to use it.]
[Footnote 21: "Te Deum laudamus," the well-known hymn of St. Ambrose and
St. Augustine.]
[Footnote 22:
"Non v'accorgete voi, che noi siam vermi,
Nati a formar l'angelica farfalla,
Che vola a giustizia senza schermi?"