A mother will sometimes hide herself from her child, to watch its eagerness in seeking her, and she is exceedingly pleased to observe it seeking for her with sorrow and anxiety. By this means she wins its love, and binds it inseparably to her heart, that it may never be alienated from her in affection. “He that hath ears to hear,” saith our Lord, “let him hear.”
Meekness is an immutability of soul, which ever continues the same, whether amidst the injuries or the applaudits of men.
Dante's Purgatorio. Canto Fifth.
[Note.—In this Canto, Dante introduces three other spirits, who relate the manner of their departure from the body, and recommend themselves to his prayers, that their penal sufferings may be alleviated.
The first of these penitents is Jacopo del Cassero, a townsman of Fano in Romagna, who, flying towards Padua from the vengeance of one of the tyrannous Este family, was waylaid and murdered in the marshes near Oriago.
The second is Buonconte, son of Guido di Montefeltro. He was a fellow-soldier with Dante in the battle of Campaldino, and there slain; but what became of his body was never known until this imaginary narration.
The third is the noble lady of Sienna, Pia de' Tolommei, whose story, told by Dante in three lines, has formed the subject of a five-act tragedy, recently illustrated in this country by the genius of Ristori.—Trans.]
Already parted from those shades, I went
Following the footsteps of my Guide, when one