=Infant Endowed with Speech.= The Imâm Abzenderoud excited the envy of his confraternity by his superior virtue and piety, so they suborned a woman to father a child upon him. The imâm prayed to Mahomet to reveal the truth, whereupon the new-born infant told in good Arabic who his father was, and Abzenderoud was acquitted with honor.—T. S. Gueulette, _Chinese Tales_ (“Imâm Abzenderoud,” 1723). =Infant of Luback=, Christian Henry Heinecken. At one year old he knew the chief events of the Pentateuch!! at thirteen months he knew the history of the Old Testament!! at fourteen months he knew the history of the New Testament!! at two and a half years he could answer any ordinary question of history or geography!! and at three years old he knew German, French, and Latin!! =Inferno= (_The_), in thirty-four cantos, by Dantê [Alighieri] (1300). While wandering through a wood (_this life_), the poet comes to a mountain (_fame_), and begins to climb it, but first a panther (_pleasure_), then a lion (_ambition_), and then a she-wolf (_avarice_), stand in his path to slay him. The appearance of Virgil (_human wisdom_), however, encourages him (canto i.), and the Mantuan tells him he is sent by three ladies [Beatrice (_faith_), Lucia (_grace_), and Mercy] to conduct him through the realms of hell (canto ii.). On they proceed together till they come to a portal bearing this inscription: ALL HOPE ABANDON YE WHO ENTER HERE; they pass through, and come to that neutral realm where dwell the spirits of those not good enough for heaven nor bad enough for hell, “the praiseless and the blameless dead.” Passing through this border-land, they command old Charon to ferry them across the Achĕron to Limbo (canto iii.), and here they behold the ghosts of the unbaptized, “blameless of sin,” but not members of the Christian Church. Homer is here, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan, who enroll Dantê “sixth of the sacred band.” On leaving Limbo, our adventurer follows his guide through the seven gates which lead to the inferno, an enormous funnel-shaped pit, divided into stages. The outer, or first “circle,” is a vast meadow, in which roam Electra (mother of Dardănus, the founder of Troy), Hector, Æne´as, and Julius Cæsar; Camilla and Penthesile´a; Latīnus and Junius Brutus; Lucretia, Marcia (Cato’s wife), Julia (Pompey’s wife), and Cornelia; and here “a part retired,” they see Saladin, the rival of Richard the Lion-heart. Linos is here and Orpheus; Aristotle, Socratês, and Plato; Democrĭtos, who ascribed creation to blind chance, Diogĕnês, the cynic, Heraclītos, Emped´oclês, Anaxag´oras, Thalĕs, Dioscor´idês, and Zeno; Cicero and Senĕca, Euclid and Ptolemy, Hippocrătês and Galen, Avĭcen, and Averroês, the Arabian translator and commentator of Aristotle (canto iv.). From the first stage they descend to the second, where Minos sits in judgment on the ghosts brought before him. He indicates what circle a ghost is to occupy by twisting his tail