The spirit replied: "When he was living still In the full glory of his most high state, All shame subduing, of his own free will Amid Sienna's public square he sate, And there his friend to ransom from the pain, Which Charles had doomed him, of his dungeon's grate, Did that which made him tremble in each vein.[66] I say no more and know I darkly teach But in short while thy neighbors unto thee Will so conduct that thou mayst gloss my speech: Him from those confines did this act set free." NOTE. In the translation of Canto VII., published in the April No. of THE CATHOLIC WORLD, I proposed a new rendering of the 74th verse, namely, _India's rich wood, heaven's lucid blue serene_, for _Indico legno, lucido e sereno_, which line I would then have read, _Indico legno, lucido sereno_, without the conjunction. I had not found this reading in any edition which fell to my hands, and it was merely a suggestion of my own to make intelligible what seemed to be unsatisfactory to the sense. In a late No. (June 14) of the London _Athenæum_, Dr. H. C. Barlow, a very learned Dantean, confirms my reading by one of the older texts in his library, and also adds that, "in the edition of the _Divina Commedia_ by Paola Costa, we find the reading recently adopted by Mr. Parsons ... which the editor says is an emendation of Biondi, who has defended it with much learned reasoning." Nevertheless, Dr. Barlow does not accept this amendment; but believes, with Monti, that Dante meant to compare the rich and varied hues of a flower-bed to something like charcoal; to wood, clear and dry; for instance, _ebony_; and he quotes from Monti this word: "What can be darker than the night? yet when free from clouds we call it _serene_." The answer whereto is that when the night is free from clouds, and starry, or serene, it is _not_ dark, and many objects in nature are blacker than such a night. I cannot feel quite so sure of my reading as Dr. Barlow appears to be of his own interpretation, but I have some confidence that Dante did not mean _ebony_, for the obvious reason that _ebony_ is not a brilliant color such as Dante was describing; and the statement which Dr. Barlow takes such pains to prove, namely, that painters often introduce black for the sake of contrast, does not apply at all to a verbal description--"_segnius per aurem_," etc. I am after all inclined to think that the true reading of this much-disputed verse may be _Indico legno, e lucido sereno_,