[177] Croce on the contrary urges with perhaps too great a bias in the other direction, that if Dante were not so great as a Poet, little would be thought of his achievements in other lines: “Se Dante non fosse, com’ è, grandissimo poeta, è da presumere che tutte quelle altre cose perderebbero rilievo.”—_Poesia di Dante_, p. 10. [178] “On Dante the Poet,” see an admirable lecture delivered before the British Academy on May 4th, 1921, by Professor Cesare Foligno. (Humphrey Milford, 1/6 net). See also Appendix III. [179] _Osservatore Romano_, May 4th, 1921. See Appendix II. [180] _La Poesia di Dante_, Laterza, 1921. [181] _Id._, pp. 9, 10. [182] _Id._, p. 27. [183] _Cf._ Statius’ words in _Purg._ xxii. 76— Già era ’l mondo tutto quanto pregno De la vera credenza, seminata Per li messaggi dell’ etterno regno. [184] See _The New Teaching_, edited by Prof. John Adams (Hodder and Stoughton, 1918, 10/6), pp. 9, 11. This work came into the writer’s hands after the virtual completion of the present essay; but it sums up so compactly the point of view of the modern principles he desired to illustrate, that he has found occasion to refer to it with some frequency. [185] _Cf._ _The New Teaching_, p. 64, where Prof. J. Adams says of the study of English Literature: “the radical difference between the old teaching and the new is that we have passed from books about books to the books themselves.” [186] See _La Poesia di Dante_, pp. 14, 15. [187] See H. O. Taylor, _The Mediaeval Mind_. Mr. Taylor heads his 43rd and last chapter “The Mediaeval Synthesis: Dante.” See Vol. II, p. 534; and _Dante and Mediaeval Thought_, in the present volume, p. 80. [188] _Par._ xxv. 3; _Conv._ III, ix. 146 _sqq._; p. 285, Oxf. Ed.; p. 226 _sq._, Bemporad. [189] Federzoni, _Vita di Beatrice Portinari_, 2nd Ed., p. 14; and below _Dante and Casentino_, pp. 148 _sq._ [190] _Inf._ xv. 82-85. [191] _Conv._ II, xiv. (xiii.), pp. 265-7, Oxf. Ed.; pp. 193-7, Bemporad. [192] Benedetto Croce (_op. cit._) has much to say on the power of Dante’s poetic genius to transmute the intractable and unpoetical scholastic and didactic matter. See esp. pp. 67, 161. [193] _Dante and Aquinas_, p. vii; _cf._ and pp. 226 _sqq._, and esp. p. 232. [194] Wicksteed, _loc. cit._ [195] _Purg._ xxvii. 140, 142. The English renderings are mainly from Tozer’s Translation. Oxford: Clarendon Press. [196] _Epist._ x. (xiii.), p. 416, Oxf. Ed.; p. 439, Bemporad. “Locutio vulgaris in qua et muliercule communicant.” [197] _Epist._ x. (xiii.) 265 _sqq._; p. 417, Oxf. Ed.; p. 440, Bemporad. [198] _Inf._ i. 113 _sq._ [199] _Inf._ i. 118-120. [200] See esp. Luke vii. 18-23, where, in answer to a question from the Baptist’s disciple, He gives a “demonstration” of Messianic works, and says “Go and describe what you have seen.”