him God has bestowed more of his own nature than upon any other creature. In the continuous scale of being, the most degraded man touches upon the animal, the most noble approaches the angel. Everything that comes from the hand of God tends towards the perfection of which it is susceptible. There is this difference between man and the other creatures, that his perfectibility is indefinite. Issuing from God, the human soul incessantly aspires towards him, and seeks by holiness and knowledge to be reunited to him. The life of the individual man is too short and weak to satisfy this yearning in this world, but before and around him is the whole human race, of which he is a part—that never dies, but moves onwards through succeeding generations on the pathway of eternal truth. Mankind is one; God has made nothing in vain. If there exists a multitude, a collection of men, it is because there is one aim for them all, only to be accomplished by all. This aim, then, does exist; man must discover and attain it. Mankind must work together towards their highest possible development in the spheres of thought and of action. Only by harmony and association is this possible. Mankind must become one, even as God is one; it must be one in organization as it is one in principle. Unity is taught by the manifest design of God in the external world, and by the necessity of an aim. Unity must be outwardly represented, therefore there must be unity of government. There must be a centre to which the general inspiration of mankind must ascend, to descend again in the form of law. There must be a power strong in unity and is the support and advice of the highest intellects—destined by nature to rule—providing with calm wisdom for all the different functions which are to be fulfilled; itself the pilot, the supreme chief, in order to bring to the highest perfection what Dante calls 'the universal religion of human nature,' that is, empire, imperium. It will maintain concord among the rulers of state, and this peace will diffuse itself thence into towns, into every cluster of habitations, into every house, into the bosom of each man."
And where is the seat of this empire to be? Here the poet quits all analytical argument, and takes up the language of synthetical and absolute affirmation. "He is no longer a philosopher," says a great Italian critic; "he is now a believer." He points to Rome, the "holy city" as he calls her, "the city whose very stones are worthy of reverence." "There," he says, "is the seat of empire. There never was, there never will be, a people endowed with more gentleness for the exercise of command, with more vigour to maintain it, and more capacity to acquire it, than the Italian nation, and, above all, the holy Roman people. God chose Rome from among the nations. She has twice given unity to the world, and from her the world will again receive it, and for ever." Dante tells us that there was a time when he did not see the hand of Providence in the dominion of Rome, and his soul revolted at it as an usurpation. Afterwards "his eyes were opened; in the history of this people he recognized predestinationem divinam; it was necessary that the world should be in some sort equalized under the rule of a single power, in order that the preaching of Jesus might give new life to the earth; and God consecrated Rome to this work. 'Populus ille sanctus, plus et gloriosus, propria commoda neglexisse videtur, ut publica pro salute humani generis procuraret.' When the work was done Rome rested from her labours, till the second gospel of unity was needed by the world." Dante developes his thesis from the authority of the poets to that of Jesus, who, he says, recognized by his death the legitimacy of the jurisdiction exercised by Rome over the whole human race. With this immense ideal ever present to his mind, Dante looked about for an element of unity as a means of carrying on the providential mission he believed destined to Italy. He chose the only instrument that appeared ready to his hand, the emperor. Rome once recognized as the living symbol of the christian dualism, the individual called to represent her was, in himself, insignificant; he would pass away; his successor would probably be an Italian; but, whether or not, the inspiration of which he would be the echo would be Italian. There is not a single word in "De Monarchia" which concerns Germany or the emperor. The Roman nation is everything, and, indeed, great care is taken to lay every possible restriction on the man who might endeavour to substitute his own ideas to those of Italy. "Rouse yourselves," he writes to his fellow-citizens, "rouse yourselves like free men, and recollect that the emperor is only your first minister. He is made for you, and not you for him. 'Romanorum potestas nec metu Italiæ, nec tricornis Europæ margine coarctatur. Nam, etsi vim passa in angustum gubernacula sua contraxit undique tamen de inviolabili jure fluctus Amphitrites attingens, vix ab inutili unda oceani se circumcingi dignatur.'"
A careful study of the entire works of this immortal thinker will doubly reward the student, not only by their manifestation of the mightiest genius of the middle ages, but by their revelation also of the purity and nobility of a heart whereon "every god did seem to set his seal, to give the world assurance of a man." A thorough knowledge of him as a statesman, a poet, and a man, will display the "unity of an imposing figure, which stands as a type of a whole nation, mournful and grand as itself." Dante is best described in his own simple and majestic words—
" Io mi son un che quando
Amore spira, noto, ed a quel modo
Che detta dentro, vo significando."
"Both as a man and a poet," says Joseph Mazzini, "he stands first of that race of mighty subjectives who may be said, in token of their conquest, to stamp the impress of their own individuality both upon the actual world and upon that which they create; that is to say, they derive all from within themselves or from the future, of which they are the prophets . . . he is one of those of whom we may say, in the spirit of the beautiful catholic legend, that they leave their image upon their winding-sheet."
The best edition of the "Divina Commedia" is one commenced by Ugo Foscolo and finished by Joseph Mazzini, published by Rolandi, London, 1843. The best edition of the minor works is the one edited by Fraticelli, published by Allegrini and Manzoni, Florence, 1835-41. M. Fraticelli's criticism is almost always just and erudite, but it is to be regretted that his edition, through some unaccountable timidity, retains even the poems proved by his own notes to be spurious.—It is a pride with the writer of the foregoing brief memoir to acknowledge largest obligations to the words and thoughts of a man who, had he not been the most active politician of these troublous times of modern Italy, would have been seen by all the world as her highest literary genius. But for recent events, and the occupations occasioned by them, the article would have been written by Mazzini himself, whose notes have been freely used in its composition.—E. A. H.
DANTE, Giovanni Battista, a descendant of the great poet, and of the same family as Ignazio, was an eminent mechanician. He was born at Perugia, and flourished during the latter half of the fifteenth century. Dante is said to have displayed his ingenuity in constructing a pair of wings with such nice skill that he could make them support him in the air, and even carry him across the lake Thrasimenus. He once had his thigh shattered, in consequence of one of the wings breaking while he was exhibiting before the inhabitants of his native town. He became a professor of mathematics at Venice, and died before he was forty years old.—R. M., A.
DANTI or DANTE, Ignazio, an eminent mathematician, was born at Perugia in 1537, and died in 1586. He was also a learned philosopher and divine, and was raised by Gregory XIII. to the bishopric of Alatri. He wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, and notes on the universal planisphere.—R. M., A.
DANTINE, Maur François, born at Gourieux, in the principality of Liége, 1688, and died at Paris in 1746. Educated at Douai, he became a benedictine at the age of twenty-four. He taught philosophy at Rheims. Refusing to subscribe the bull Unigenitus, he had to leave Rheims. We next find him abbé of St. Germain-des-Pres at Paris, engaged in editing compilations of canon law, and republishing Du Gauge's "Glossarium mediæ et infimæ Latinitatis." Dantine had published five volumes of his edition, when he found himself driven from his new home, in consequence of his religious opinions. At Pontoise, where he sought a refuge, he occupied himself in a translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew. In 1737 he returned to Paris, and joined Dom Bouquet in editing the "Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France." His best work was "L'art de vérifier les dates." He had but commenced it when he was struck with apoplexy. A second attack carried him off, when he had reached his fifty-ninth year. Dantine's reputation rests on this work.—J. A., D.
DANTON, George Jacques, one of the most prominent leaders of the French revolution, was born at Arcis-sur-Aube on the 28th of October, 1759. He was educated for the bar, but
