PEACE.

DANTE'S PURGATORIO.

CANTO EIGHTH.

In this Canto, Dante introduces the souls of Nino Visconti, judge of Gallura in Sardinia; and of Conrad Malaspina, who predicts to the poet his banishment.

'Twas now the hour that brings to men at sea,
Who in the morn have bid sweet friends farewell,
Fond thoughts and longing back with them to be;
And thrills the pilgrim with a tender spell

Of love, if haply, new upon his way,

He faintly hear a chime from some far bell,
That seems to mourn the dying of the day;
When I forbore my listening faculty
To mark one spirit uprisen amid the band
Who joined both palms and lifted them on high
(First having claimed attention with his hand)
And towards the Orient bent so fixed an eye
As 'twere he said, " My God! on thee alone
My longing rests." Then from his lips there came
Te lucis ante, so devout of tone,

So sweet, my mind was ravished by the same
The others next, full sweetly and devout,
Fixing their gaze on the supernal wheels,
Followed him chanting the whole Psalm throughout.

Now, reader, to the truth my verse conceals
Make sharp-thy vision; subtle is the veil
So fine 'twere easily passed through unseen.
I saw that gentle army, meek and pale,
Silently gazing upward with a mien
As of expectancy, and from on high

Beheld two angels with two swords descend
Which flamed with fire, but, as I could descry,
They bare no points, being broken at the end.
Green robes, in hue more delicate than spring's
Tender new leaves, they trailed behind and fanned
With gentle beating of their verdant wings.
One, coming near, just over us took stand,
Down to th' opponent bank the other sped,
So that the spirits were between them grouped
Full well could I discern each flaxen head;
But in their faces mine eyes' virtue drooped,
As 'twere confounded by excess and dead.
"From Mary's bosom they have both come here,"
Sordello said-" this valley to protect

"

Against the serpent that will soon appear: Whence I, unknowing which way to expect This object, turned me, almost froze with fear, And to those trusty shoulders closely clung. Again Sordello: "Go we down and see These mighty shades, and let them hear our tongue: Thy presence will to them right gracious be." Only three steps I think brought me below Where one I noticed solely eyeing me As if who I might be he fain would know. 'Twas dusk, yet not so but the dusky air, Between his eyes and mine, within the dell,

Showed what before it did not quite declare.
Towards me he moved, and I towards him as well:
Gentle Judge Nino, when I saw thee there
What joy was mine to find thee not in hell !
We left unsaid no form of fair salute:

Then he inquired: "How long since thou didst come
O'er the far waters to the mountain's foot ?"
"O but this morn," said I, "the realms of gloom
I passed: in the first life I am, but fain
Would find the next by following on this track."

Like to men suddenly amazed, the twain,
He and Sordello, hearing this, drew back.
One looked at Virgil, one into the face
Of a companion sitting there, and cried,
"Up, Conrad! see what God hath of his grace
Bestowed," then turning unto me replied:

NINO VISCONTI.

"By that especial reverence, I beseech,
Which thou ow'st him whose primal way is hid
So that none sound it, if soe'er thou reach
The shore beyond the vasty waters, bid
My child Giovanna for my peace implore
There where the cry of innocents heaven heeds.
Her mother I am sure loves me no more
Since she put off her widow's paly weeds,
But in her misery fain would wear this day.
From her full readily may one be taught

How soon love's flame in woman dies away
If sight or touch full oft relume it not.

The chanticleer upon Gallura's shield
Had graced her sepulchre with fairer show
Than will that viper, which to battle-field
Marshals the men of Milan." With such glow
He uttered this as in his face revealed
The heart's just passion smouldering yet below.

Still that sole part of heaven I fondly eyed
Where the stars move, even as a wheel doth move
More slowly next the axle. Said my Guide:
"Son, what dost thou so gaze at there above ?"
"Up there! at yon three torches," I replied,
"Whose splendor makes this pole here ail ablaze."
And he to me: "The four clear stars that rose
This morn before thee have abased their rays,
And these have mounted in the place of those."
While thus he spake, Sordello to his side
Drew Virgil, and exclaimed: "Behold our Foe!"
And pointed to the thing which he descried.
And where that small vale's barrier sinks most low

A serpent suddenly was seen to glide,
Such as gave Eve, perchance, the fruit of woe.
Through flowers and herbage came that evil streak,
To lick its back oft turning round its head,
As with his tongue a beast his fur doth sleek.
I was not looking, so must leave unsaid

When first they fluttered, but full well I saw
Both heavenly falcons had their plumage spread.
Soon as the serpent felt the withering flaw
Of those green wings, it vanished, and they sped
Up to their posts again with even flight.
The shade who had approached the judge when he
Accosted him, had never moved his sight
Through this encounter, looking fixed on me.

CONRAD MALASPIΝΑ.

"So may that light," the spirit began to say,

"Which leads thee up, find in thine own free will Sufficient wax to last thee all the way,

Even to th' enamelled summit of the Hill.
If thou true news of Val di Magra know'st,
Or of those parts, inform me of the same,
For I was mighty once upon that coast,
And Conrad Malaspina was my name.
Not the old lord, but his descendant, I:
The love which once I to my kindred bore
Is here refined." "O," thus I made reply,
"That realm of yours I never travelled o'er;
But where throughout all Europe is the place
That knows it not? The honor Fame accords
Your house illustrates not alone the race,

But makes the land renowned as are its lords;
He knows that country who was never there:
Still the free purse they bear, and still bright swords:

So mount my soul as this to thee I swear!

Custom and nature privilege them so,
That, if through guilt the world's guide lead astray,
They in the path of right straightforward go
Sole of all men, and scorn the evil way."
To these my words, "Now go," the spirit said,
For the sun shall not enter seven times more
That part of heaven where Aries o'er his bed
Stretches and spreads his forked feet all four,
Ere this thy courtesy's belief shall be
Nailed in the middle of thy head with nails
Of greater force than men's reports to thee
If, unimpeded, Judgment's course prevails.

THE RUSSIAN IDEA.

FROM THE GERMIN OF CONRAD VON BOLANDEN.

III.

RUSSIAN VICTIMS.

CONCLUDED.

The following morning, Rasumowski sat with his guests at a sumptuous breakfast in his elegant summer-house, the roof of which rested upon beautfully ornamented pillars. Adolph von Sempach appeared very sad; for he had again received evidences of Alexandra's indomitable pride and want of feeling. Beck remarked the sposition of his friend, and he thought with satisfaction of the deeply flicted mother in her lonely palace at Posen.

"Some years ago, the emperor emancipated the serfs-did he act rudently?" asked the high official

of Berlin.

"Whatever the czar does, is well done," answered the governor; "and the future czar again introduces he former system of servitude, that >o will be right. But you must )t understand the abolition of servide in a literal sense. The serfs were freed only from servitude to the obility; the Russian nobility have

VOL. XVII.-ІІ

lost by it. But both peasant and noble will always remain slaves of the emperor. Consequently servitude still exists in Russia, the same kind that you desire to establish in the new German Empire. Ah! there comes the Roman Catholic pastor!" exclaimed the governor, his features assuming at once their accustomed look of ferocity. "Now, gentlemen, see how I shall deal with this hero of liberty, who preaches rebellion to the people!"

The pastor timidly approached the Russian dignitary, and allowed himself to be treated in a manner unworthy of his priestly dignity.

But the priest had seen may thousands of his Catholic brethren put to death and transported to Siberia. He knew that, by a stroke of the pen, Rasumowski could doom him to the

same fate; and to this must also be added the fact that in Poland Catholic clergyman are educated by professors appointed by the Russian government. These professors very naturally train and discipline the