[67]. By heaven, throughout this discourse, Dante means, simply, planetary influence. The lesson taught by Marco Lombardi is the same as that which Shakspere puts into the mouth of Cassius:
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.”
[68]. It is well to note in connection with this passage that Dante was, up to the time of his banishment by a political faction, a Guelph, the Guelphs being then the patriotic party in Italy, and supporters of the pope in his resolute opposition to the foreign invasion under Frederic Barbarossa. During his exile Dante changed his politics and joined the Ghibellines. Had he lived in our own days it is certain that he, whose faith was so high and clear, would have shared the openly expressed convictions of all responsible men and competent judges in this matter, that the temporal authority of the Holy See is necessary, as things now are, to the full liberty and full exercise of its spiritual authority. Dante’s opinion, as above expressed, is that of a political partisan in bygone times. Were he living to-day, instructed by the lessons of the centuries which have passed since he wrote, there can be no doubt that he would adhere to his earlier, truer, and more patriotic political convictions and see no impossibility of the union of “The twofold splendors of a double sun in Rome” in the person of Rome’s lawful and historic pontiff and king.—Ed. C. W.
[69]. Under the nom de plume of “Jean de Nivelle.” See Le Soleil for Jan. 4, 1878.
[70]. The diet of a French peasant is frugal in the extreme. His two meals usually consist of cabbage-soup—in which on Sundays and other special occasions a morsel of bacon is boiled—accompanied with rye bread. We have known a very well-to-do couple make half a rabbit last them four days in the way of meat. Many kinds of fungi are common articles of diet with the French peasantry. They cook them with vinegar “to kill the poison.”
[71]. St. Bernard.
[72]. Thoreau, the Poet-Naturalist. By W. E. Channing. Boston: Roberts Brothers. 1873.
Thoreau: his Life and Aims. A Study. By H. A. Page. Boston: J. R. Osgood & Co. 1877.
[73]. Perhaps this peak, encircled by other peaks, is so styled from the curious dance of this region, called Lo Salt, performed by four men and four women. At a certain part the former pass their hands under the arms of the women, and raise them in the air in the form of a pyramid, of which their white caps form the summit.