Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Purgatory of Dante Alighieri, Vol. 2: The Earthly Paradise
But even such a statement as this must not be pressed too far. Dante's conception of represent ing in a figure the scheme of man's redemption is, in his own phrase, polysensuous. On one side, it classifies and exemplifies all human passions, all human aspirations and desires, all the hind rances and all the helps which delay or assist man in fulfilling the law of his being. The Inferno shows how each evil passion indulged in brings its own appropriate punishment: the Purgaforz'o shows by what painful discipline it may be sub dued and eradicated. These lessons are not wholly new: they are a part of pagan morality: and they are illustrated from the teaching of pagan philo sophers, and from the examples of pagan lives. Here it is appropriate that Virgil, the typical re presentative of unassisted human wisdom, should be the pilgrim's guide and teacher, the exponent of pagan morality.
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