It is, however, the only way in which the passages can be reconciled with his further assumption, shared by some other commentators, that Dante, in his flight through the spheres, simply ascended without any movement in longitude except that he was carried round by the daily revolution of the spheres. All the planets, therefore, were ranged one above the other, in the sign of Gemini, and it was always noon on the earth below his feet, since that was the hour at which he ascended from the Earthly Paradise, and his movement was the same as the sun’s. (Here Della Valle is inconsistent, however, for he maintains that the ascent was made in the early morning.) But this is a very artificial conceit, and not indicated by Dante. He implies that Beatrice, in leading him to each sphere, chose the part of it which he was to enter (see _Par._ xxvii. 102), and he tells us that Saturn was in Leo, Venus in Pisces, and the sun in Aries. [Illustration: Fig. 50. An impossible interpretation of _Par._ xxvii.] A book which aims at explaining Dante’s _Paradiso_ to young people[509] suggests an original way of reconciling the two passages, for the author gravely asserts that the sun was at first below Dante’s feet in Gemini, but that by the time he looked down again it had moved a good distance onward, and was then in the sign of Taurus! According to this, a whole month must have elapsed, and time had gone backwards, from May to April! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [509] _Il Paradiso di Dante dichiarato ai giovani_, by Angelo de Gubernatis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A suggestion much more worthy of attention is that of Professor Rizzacasa d’Orsogna, who thinks the key is to be found in the line, “Volgendom’ io con gli eterni Gemelli.” This, he suggests, is in anticipation of the second passage, for although Dante could not see the whole habitable earth at any one time, his change of position, as he revolved with the Twins, enabled him to do so in the course of time which elapsed between his two views. A comparison of figures 48 and 49 will make this clear. One more suggestion may perhaps be made, though it is rather a hazardous one. “Dai colli alle foci”[510] may mean from the Apennine Hills to the mouths of Ganges. This would be decisive for the correctness of the explanation illustrated by our diagram. (See fig. 48). ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [510] “From the hills to the river-mouths.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In any case, the points which Dante specially wishes us to understand are clear and simple: at the first glance he was struck by the insignificance of the Earth; at the second, he became conscious that he was moving with the spheres, having passed over 90° of arc, or a quarter of the diurnal revolution, and he saw that it was now sunset at Jerusalem.