Caron dimonio con occhi di bragia Loro accennando, tutte le raccoglie: Batte col remo qualunque s' adagia. Come d' autunno si levan le foglie L' una appresso dell altra, infin che 'l ramo Rende alia terra tutte le sue spoglie; Similemente il mal seme d' Adamo, Gittansi di quel lito ad una ad una Per cenni, com' augel per suo richiamo. (Ver. 100, &c.) --Charon, demoniac form, With eyes of burning coal, collects them all, Beck'ning, and each that lingers, with his oar Strikes. As fall off the light autumnal leaves, One still another following, till the bough Strews all its honours on the earth beneath;-- E'en in like manner Adam's evil brood Cast themselves one by one down from the shore Each at a beck, as falcon at his call. (CARY.) And this passage, which I think admirably picturesque: Ma poco valse, che l' ale al sospetto Non potero avanzar: quegli andò sotto, E quei drizzò, volando, suso il petto. Non altrimenti l' anitra di botto, Quando 'l falcon s' appressa, giù s' attuffa, Ed ei ritorna su crucciato e rotto. Irato Calcabrina della buffa, Volando dietro gli tenne, invaghito, Che quei campasse, per aver la zuffa: E come 'l barattier fu disparito, Cosi volse gli artigli al suo compagno, E fu con lui sovra 'l fosso ghermito. Ma l' altro fu bene sparvier grifagno Ad artigliar ben lui, e amedue Cadder nel mezzo del bollente stagno. Lo caldo sghermidor subito fue: Ma però di levarsi era niente, Si aveano inviscate l' ale sue. ('Infer.' c. xxii. ver. 127, &c.) But little it avail'd: terror outstripp'd His following flight: the other plung'd beneath, And he with upward pinion rais'd his breast: E'en thus the water-fowl, when she perceives The falcon near, dives instant down, while he Enrag'd and spent retires. That mockery In Calcabrina fury stirr'd, who flew After him, with desire of strife inflam'd; And, for the barterer had 'scap'd, so turn'd His talons on his comrade. O'er the dyke In grapple close they join'd; but th' other prov'd A goshawk, able to rend well his foe; And in the boiling lake both fell. The heat Was umpire soon between them, but in vain To lift themselves they strove, so fast were glued Their pennons. (CARY.) V. Very closely connected with this picturesqueness, is the topographic reality of Dante's journey through Hell. You should note and dwell on this as one of his great charms, and which gives a striking peculiarity to his poetic power. He thus takes the thousand delusive forms of a nature worse than chaos, having no reality but from the passions which they excite, and compels them into the service of the permanent. Observe the exceeding truth of these lines: