[381] _Who gamble, etc._: A different sin from the lavish spending punished in the Fourth Circle (_Inf._ vii.). The distinction is that between thriftlessness and the prodigality which, stripping a man of the means of living, disgusts him with life, as described in the following line. It is from among prodigals that the ranks of suicides are greatly filled, and here they are appropriately placed together. It may seem strange that in his classification of guilt Dante should rank violence to one's self as a more heinous sin than that committed against one's neighbour. He may have in view the fact that none harm their neighbours so much as they who are oblivious of their own true interest. [382] _Sodom and Cahors_: Sins against nature are reckoned sins against God, as explained lower down in this Canto. Cahors in Languedoc had in the Middle Ages the reputation of being a nest of usurers. These in old English Chronicles are termed Caorsins. With the sins of Sodom and Cahors are ranked the denial of God and blasphemy against Him--deeper sins than the erroneous conceptions of the Divine nature and government punished in the Sixth Circle. The three concentric rings composing the Seventh Circle are all on the same level, as we shall find. [383] _Fraud, etc._: Fraud is of such a nature that conscience never fails to give due warning against the sin. This is an aggravation of the guilt of it. [384] _The second circle_: The second now beneath them; that is, the Eighth. [385] _Seat of Dis_: The Ninth and last Circle. [386] _Thy Ethics_: The Ethics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'With regard to manners, these three things are to be eschewed: incontinence, vice, and bestiality.' Aristotle holds incontinence to consist in the immoderate indulgence of propensities which under right guidance are adapted to promote lawful pleasure. It is, generally speaking, the sin of which those about whom Dante has inquired were guilty.--It has been ingeniously sought by Philalethes (_Gött. Com._) to show that Virgil's disquisition is founded on this threefold classification of Aristotle's--violence being taken to be the same as bestiality, and malice as vice. But the reference to Aristotle is made with the limited purpose of justifying the lenient treatment of incontinence; in the same way as a few lines further on Genesis is referred to in support of the harsh treatment of usury. [387] _Physics_: The Physics of Aristotle, in which it is said: 'Art imitates nature.' Art includes handicrafts. [388] _Genesis_: 'And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden to dress it and to keep it.' 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread.' [389] _His disdain_: The usurer seeks to get wealth independently of honest labour or reliance on the processes of nature. This far-fetched argument against usury closes one of the most arid passages of the _Comedy_. The shortness of the Canto almost suggests that Dante had himself got weary of it.