Hardly ever does he find a beautiful epithet for her: she is ruler of Hell,[182] Cain and the Thorns[183] (in reference to the legend which sees this figure in her dark markings); or she is simply Delia,[184] Trivia,[185] the daughter of Latona,[186] or with a little warmth the sister of the sun,[187] and with the sun one of the two Eyes of Heaven.[188] One exception to this harsh treatment is in the beautiful description of reaching the heaven of the moon,[189] for there she is the first star, the eternal pearl; and the sudden burst of eloquence in the midst of a grave argument in _De Monarchia_ startles us doubly when we find that Justice is compared to the moon—not, as one might expect, resplendent in a dark sky, but Phœbe gazing at her brother opposite, in the purple of the morning calm.[190] The passage from _Par._ xxix. quoted above helps us to understand why the moon in this position should symbolize Justice, for here again is suggested the perfect balancing of the two great orbs, as the sun rises and the full moon sets. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [182] _Inf._ x. 80. [183] _Inf._ xx. 126. [184] _Purg._ xxix. 78; _Ep._ vi. 54. [185] _Par._ xxiii. 26. [186] _Par._ x. 67; xxii. 139; xxix. 1. [187] _Purg._ xxiii. 120. [188] _Purg._ xx. 132. [189] _Par._ ii. 25-36. [190] _De Mon._ I. xi. 35-37. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Add to these passages two similes drawn not indeed from the moon itself but from the halo surrounding her,[191] and two descriptions of brilliant moonlight nights,[192] and we have all that Dante has written in praise of the moon. It is true that throughout the _Inferno_ and _Purgatorio_ the sun typifies Divine Grace, and the moon is his opposite, but this cannot altogether explain the difference in their treatment, even in the _Divine Comedy_. A deeper reason seems to be Dante’s true southerner’s love of the sun; and he doubtless had the astronomer’s feeling that moonlight always means loss of starlight, which he dearly loved (see _Purg._ xviii. 76, 77). Perhaps too the astrological views of the moon influenced him, consciously or not. According to Ristoro, the moon represents the poorest and lowest classes of people, who are servants and messengers to the rest; and as all the planets were supposed to be either masculine or feminine, he ungallantly adds—“E questa Luna, a cagione di sua viltà, potemo dire per ragione ch’ella sia femmina.”[193] Her only house, too, which is Cancer, is also poor and base. The moon, moreover, is nearer Earth than any other planet, and shows by her dark markings that she is less pure than the rest. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [191] _Par._ x. 67-69; and _Purg._ xxix. 78. [192] _Purg._ xxix. 53, 54; and _Par._ xxiii. 26.