[72] At the last moment before going to press, it is cheering to find this contention (treated more fully by the present writer in an article in the _Anglo-Italian Review_, Dec., 1918), corroborated by Prof. A. J. Grant, who, in an article on “Dante’s conception of History” (_History_, Vol. VI, Jan., 1922), speaks thus of the Poet’s praise of the Empire: “It is a demand for a world-order resting on laws that are sensible and generally known, and which control the lives of states as well as of individuals. It is little exaggeration to say that it is a plea for a League of Nations; and the _De Monarchia_ is not a bad handbook for those who are called upon to speak for the League” (p. 229). [73] _Par._ xxii. 151. [74] _Mon._ iii. 16; Oxf., p. 376; Bemp. p. 411. [75] _Mon._ I, xi; Oxf. p. 345; Bemporad, p. 364. [76] _Mon._ I, xi., _ut supra_. [77] _Mon._ I, xi. [78] III, iv. init. Oxf., p. 365; Bemporad, p. 394. Dante combats and refutes the traditional argument in vogue in his day, which assumed that the creation of sun and moon in Gen. i. had a mystical reference to the Spiritual and Temporal powers respectively and argued that therefore, because the moon derives her _light_ from the sun, the Temporal must owe its _authority_ to the Spiritual; but, later in the chapter (Oxf., p. 366 _sq._; Bemporad, p. 396), he seems to admit a workable _analogy_ between the luminaries and the authorities. [79] _Purg._ xvi. 106 _sqq._ [80] _Par._ vi. 121 _sq._ [81] 2 Cor. iii. 17. [82] _Inf._, i. p. 124. [83] _Cf._ _V.E._, I, vii. 28; p. 382, Oxf.; p. 324, Bemporad. _Ipsum naturantem, qui est Deus._ [84] _Par._ xxxiii. 145. [85] Oxf. Ed., p. 282; Bemporad, p. 222. [86] _Gerusalemme Liberata_, xvii. 63. [87] The best spirits among our late enemies have already begun to reap the reward of their deadly earnestness in a wider and saner point of view: a realisation of variety of national characteristics and an appreciation of them; a longing to clear away misapprehensions, and “openly to call injustice injustice—to forgive and to expect forgiveness.” See an excellent article by Hedwig von Saenger in _Student Movement_, Oct., 1921. [88] _Il comico, l’ umorismo e la satira nella Divina Commedia._ Da Enrico Sannia. 2 vols. Milan, 1909. [89] _Vita_, s. 8. [90] _Mag. Mar._ i, 31, 1193. εὐτραπελία δ’ ἐστὶ μεσότης βωμολοχίας καὶ ἀγροικίας. ὅ τε γὰρ βωμολόχος ἐστὶν ὁ πάντα καὶ πᾶν οἰόμενος δεῖν σκώπτειν, ὅ τε ἄγροικος ὁ μήτε σκώπτειν βουλόμενος, μήτε σκωφθῆναι, ἀλλ’ ὀργιζόμενος. ὁ δ’ εὐτράπελος ἀνὰ μέσον τούτων, ὁ μήτε πάντας καὶ παντῶς σκώπτων, μητ’ αὐτὸς ἄγροικος ὤν. ἔσται δ’ ὁ εὐτράπελος διττῶς πως λεγόμενος. καὶ γὰρ ὁ δυνάμενος σκῶψαι ἐμμελῶς, καὶ ὃς ἂν ὑπομείνῃ σκωπτόμενος.