classics digests, reflections and reviews
What is Man in Nature? Let man then contemplate the whole of nature in her full and grand majesty, and turn his vision from the low objects which surround him. Let him gaze on that brilliant light, set like an eternal lamp to illumine the universe; let the earth appear to him a point in comparison with the vast circle described by the sun; and let him wonder at the […]
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Poverty as Lady Death for even as a youth, he ran to war against his father, on behalf of her- the lady unto whom, just as to death, none willingly unlocks the door; before his spiritual court et coram patre, he wed her; day by day he loved her more. She was bereft of her first husband; scorned, obscure, for some eleven hundred years, until that sun came, she had […]
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The essence of this blessed life consists in keeping to the boundaries of God’s will, through which our wills become one single will; so that, as we are ranged from step to step throughout this kingdom, all this kingdom wills that which will please the King whose will is rule. And in His will there is our peace: that sea to which all beings move-the beings He creates or nature […]
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Hell vs. Purgatory What is the difference between Hell and Purgatory in Dante’s Divine Comedy? To put the question in a different way, what determines whether a person stays in Hell or Purgatory? According to St. Augustine, it is the grace of God, which restores free will in man and enables him to desire and attain the Good. Firstly, those in the Inferno are confined to their respective circles, and never […]
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Many people have struggled with the idea of eternal punishment in Hell. “Punishment should fit the crime, but what crime could man possibly commit in this temporal life to deserve eternal punishment?” I’m not qualified to address that question fully from a theological perspective. Truth be told, I don’t quite understand it myself. Hopefully whoever reads this might shed some light on the issue or contribute to the discussion. All I […]
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It is written in the Ten Commandments: “You shall not steal.” “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” I’ve never thought much about the existential significance of these commandments until I read Dante. Thieves are assigned to the Eighth Circle of Hell, […]
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“I saw horned demons with enormous whips, who lashed those spirits cruelly from behind Ah, how their first strokes made those sinners lift their heels! Indeed no sinner waited for a second stroke to fall-or for a third.” Dante assigned panders and seducers to the Eighth Circle of the Inferno, people who seduce women or prostitute women to others for their own profit. According to Dictionary.com, pander is “a person […]
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