was but the form of his love for his people, as in his great hope for the future the glory of the past was to return. Boccaccio was the most illustrious of those in literature who represented the sensual conception of woman; and whatever his literary virtues may have been, no one has ever called attention to his patriotic fervor or to his dignity of character. Laura and Beatrice, though not of royal birth, have been made immortal by their poet lovers; Boccaccio loved the daughter of a king, but he has described her with such scant respect that what little renown she may have derived from her liaison with him is all to her discredit. The story of Dante and Beatrice is now an old one, but ever fresh with the rare charm which it possesses even after the lapse of these many years. The _New Life_, Dante's earliest work, which is devoted to a description of his first meeting with Beatrice and his subsequent all-powerful love for her, has been regarded sceptically by some critics, who are inclined to see in it but an allegory, and there are others who go so far as to say that Beatrice never existed. What uncertainty can there be regarding her life, when Cino da Pistoja wrote his most celebrated poem, a _canzone_ to Dante, consoling him for her loss? The following stanza from Rossetti's matchless version is proof enough for all who care to read: "Why now do pangs of torment clutch thy heart, Which with thy love should make thee overjoyed, As him whose intellect has passed the skies? Behold, the spirits of thy life depart Daily to Heaven with her, they so are buoyed With thy desire, and Love so bids them rise. O God I and thou, a man whom God made wise, To nurse a charge of care, and love the same! I tell thee, in His name, From sin of sighing grief to hold thy breath, Nor let thy heart to death, Nor harbour death's resemblance in thine eyes. God hath her with Himself eternally, Yet she inhabits every hour with thee."