share of sensual desires at first, may lead the soul to God. It is interesting to see how Goethe and Dante, both of whom have given immortal expression to the tragical side of sexual love, have also given expression to the mystical feeling of the Eternal Feminine. It is this that finally saves Faust, and as his soul is caught up into the heavens, the "magna peccatrix," the "mulier Samaritana," the purified spirit of Gretchen, all pray to the "Mater Gloriosa in his behalf, and the "Chorus Mysticus' announces his salvation in the following lines: Alles vergängliche Ist nur ein Gleichniss; Yet the highest achievement of the mystical expression of the Ewig Weibliche is seen in 1 All that passes is only a symbol; that which is unattainable, here becomes reality, the indescribable here is attained; the Eternal Feminine draws us upward. Dante's apotheosis of Beatrice, the most glorious imagination, says Shelley, in all literature. Some have denied that Beatrice ever lived, thinking perchance that the symbolic meaning of the "Divine Comedy" would thereby be impaired. But it is precisely the fact that Beatrice did actually exist that gives her so great a charm. Here two of the sources of the transcendental feeling, sex and religion, are united; and even in Heaven the bodily charms of Beatrice are never forgotten by Dante. The purity and mystic power of innocent childhood and youth are expressed in the "Vita Nuova," where we see how the gates of Paradise were opened up to the young Dante in his love for Beatrice. "Her beauty, her goodness, all her perfections are to him but proofs of God's unending love; and even her physical charms lead not to desire but to a sacred joy in the glory that God has revealed to the world. Here are no unsatisfied desires, no jealousy and no complaints. The Beloved herself is only the most wonderful and most precious among the flowers that bloom in the consecrated garden of God, before which we stand in silent rapture and breathe its perfume, without any desire to pluck the rose from its stem. Her voice is only the sweetest among those of a thousand nightingales, to which we listen with no desire to catch them. The pomp of the flowers, the quiet of the grove, the chorus of praise of those who dwell therein, speak of the glory of nature, of the goodness of its Creator, and lift the mind of the ecstatic beholder into the region of pure blessedness. Unendingly deeper and more soulful, however, is this tender feeling of piety, when not merely the unconscious voice of plants and beasts, but the fullness of a beloved spirit, who herself is consecrated to God in pure worship,-declares unto us the praise of the true God." 1 "in When Beatrice died she became to Dante a holy, a tender reminiscent affection and a lofty symbol; "who dwells " as he himself says, heaven with the angels and on earth with my soul." He caught a vision of her glory, and 1 Witte. inflamed with holy zeal, he determined to build about her beloved personality the mighty structure of the "Divina Commedia.” She appears to Virgil for a moment in Limbo to arrange for the escape of Dante. She comes to him and reveals her glory in the Earthly Paradise, and it is by looking into her eyes that he receives the power to rise from star to star on the steps of the celestial stairway that leads him even to the throne of God. The spirits he meets in his upward flight are disembodied and appear to him as lights and flashes. But Beatrice retains her earthly form, only now infinitely more beautiful; and she smiles upon him with loving eyes, combining in one, earthly and celestial beauty. It is only in the Empyrean, in the presence of God himself, that the twin star of Dante's earthly and mystical love are blended with the light that fills the world. CHAPTER V. PLATO AND PLOTINUS. As we study the sources of modern civilization, one of the amazing things that strike us is the inexhaustible influence of Greek culture. To use the words of Sir Henry Maine, "To one small people it was given to create the principle of progress. That people was the Greek. Except the blind forces of nature, nothing moves in this world which is not Greek in its origin." One of the greatest elements of this influence is Plato; out of whom, says Emerson, "come all things that are still written and debated among men." It is not our province here to discuss Platonism, either in literature or in philosophy or in Christian theology. Yet as Plato has exerted a mighty influence in all these things, so he stands at the very beginning of that phase |