[93] Paradiso, xxxi. 52-93.
[94] Paradiso, xxxiii. 143-145.
[95] Compare Symonds, p. 183.
APPENDIX
AN ATTEMPT TO STATE THE CENTRAL
THOUGHT OF THE COMEDY
APPENDIX.
Dante's poem—the true reflection of his mind—is a compact and rounded whole in which all the parts are mutually interdependent. Its digressions are never excrescences, its episodes are never detached from its main purpose, its form is never arbitrary and accidental, but is always the systematic and deliberate expression of its substance. Moreover it is profoundly mediæval and Catholic in conception and spirit. The scholastic theology and science of the Middle Ages and the spiritual institutions of the Catholic Church were no trammels to Dante's thought and aspiration. Under them and amidst them he moved with a perfect sense of freedom, in them he found the embodiment of his loftiest conceptions. Against their abuses his impetuous spirit poured out its lava-stream of burning indignation, but his very passion against those who laid impure hands upon the sacred things of God is the measure of his reverence for their sanctity.