[241] _The Master_: Aristotle, often spoken of by Dante as the Philosopher, and reverenced by him as the genius to whom the secrets of nature lay most open. [242] _Democritus, etc._: According to whom the world owes its form to a chance arrangement of atoms. [243] _Linus_: Not Livy, into which some have changed it. Linus is mentioned by Virgil along with Orpheus, _Egl._ iv. [244] _Ptolemy_: Greek geographer of the beginning of the second century, and author of the system of the world believed in by Dante, and freely used by him throughout the poem. [245] _Avicenna_: A physician, born in Bokhara, and died at Ispahan, 1037. His _Medical Canon_ was for centuries used as a text-book in Europe. [246] _Averroes_: A Mohammedan philosopher of Cordova, died 1198. In his great Commentary on Aristotle he gives and explains every sentence of that philosopher's works. He was himself ignorant of Greek, and made use of Arabic versions. Out of his Arabic the Commentary was translated into Hebrew, and thence into Latin. The presence of the three Mohammedans in this honourable place greatly puzzles the early commentators. [247] _A part, etc._: He passes into the darkness of the Limbo out of the brightly-lit, fortified enclosure. It is worth remarking, as one reads, how vividly he describes his first impression of a new scene, while when he comes to leave it a word is all he speaks. CANTO V. From the First Circle thus I downward went Into the Second,[248] which girds narrower space, But greater woe compelling loud lament. Minos[249] waits awful there and snarls, the case Examining of all who enter in; And, as he girds him, dooms them to their place. I say, each ill-starred spirit must begin On reaching him its guilt in full to tell; And he, omniscient as concerning sin, Sees to what circle it belongs in Hell; 10 Then round him is his tail as often curled As he would have it stages deep to dwell. And evermore before him stand a world Of shades; and all in turn to judgment come, Confess and hear, and then are downward hurled.[250] 'O thou who comest to the very home Of woe,' when he beheld me Minos cried, Ceasing a while from utterance of doom, 'Enter not rashly nor in all confide; By ease of entering be not led astray.' 20 'Why also[251] growling?' answered him my Guide; 'Seek not his course predestinate to stay; For thus 'tis willed[252] where nothing ever fails Of what is willed. No further speech essay.' And now by me are agonising wails Distinguished plain; now am I come outright Where grievous lamentation me assails. Now had I reached a place devoid of light, Raging as in a tempest howls the sea When with it winds, blown thwart each other, fight. 30 The infernal storm is raging ceaselessly, Sweeping the shades along with it, and them It smites and whirls, nor lets them ever be.