"to obtain those sweet apples (of Paradise) promised me by my true Leader; but first is"--convien--how shall you translate the pride and resignation of that word?--"it behoves," we must say, "it convenes"--"first it is convenient that I should fall as far as to the center (of hell);"--who must end the gloom and terror of that journey, that fall, with _E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle,_ "And then we came forth to behold again the Stars;" and who came from his ascent through purifying Purgatory with _Rifatto si, come piante novelle Rinnovellate di novella fronda, Puro e disposto a salire alle stelle_-- "So made anew, like young plants in spring with fresh foliage, I was pure and disposed to come forth among the Stars;"--and who must end his _Paradiso_ and his life-work announcing _L'amor che muove il sole e le altre stelle,_ "The Love that moves the sun and the other Stars." Ah, glory to this Dante! Glory to the man who would end nothing but with the stars! III. GREEKS AND PERSIANS Now to consider what this Blind Maeonides did for Greece. Sometime last Century a Black Potentate from Africa visited England, and was duly amazed at all he saw. Being a very important person indeed, he was invited to pay his respects to Queen Victoria. he told her of the many wonders he had seen; and took occasion to ask her, as the supreme authority, how such things came to be. What was the secret of England's greatness? --She rose to it magnificently, and did precisely what a large section of her subjects would have expected of her. She solemnly handed him a copy of the Bible, and told him he should find his answer in that. She was thinking, no doubt, of the influence of Christian teaching; if called on for the exact passage that had worked the wonder, very likely she would have turned to the Sermon on the Mount. Well; very few empires have founded their material greatness on such texts, as _The meek shall inherit the earth._ They take a shorter road to it. If a man ask of thee thy coat, and thou give him thy cloak also, thou dost not (generally) build thyself a world-wide commerce. When he smiteth thee on they left cheek, and thou turnest to him thy right for the complementary buffet, thou dost not (as a rule) become shortly possessed of his territories. Queen Victoria lived in an age when people did not notice these little discrepancies; so did Mr. Podsnap. And yet there was much more truth in her answer than you might think.