of Raphael-unity of tone and colour, harmony, fitness of parts, proportion, and sustained good taste."

THE idea of a living man entering the kingdom of the dead to record his feelings and experiences, or describe its awful mysteries to his fellow-men on his return to earth, is a tradition to be found, in more or less definite shape, scattered through the legends of the human race. Homer and Virgil have embodied the fantasy in their poems. It was the subject of scenic representations during the Middle Ages, while the paintings and sculpture of cloister and cathedral familiarized the faithful with the superstition. But it remained for the genius of Dante to collect the scattered details in existence before his time; and, by the light of his wide experience, his profound intelligence, his sufferings, passions, and prejudices, and the stirring incidents of his own period, to fuse them into a marvellous history of Christian faith, as it was understood and

interpreted by the Catholic Church, before its glowing colours had been toned down by the Reformation.

Dante Alighieri was born at Florence, in 1265, of an ancient family that lost one of its ancestors at the Crusades. There is much uncertainty as to the nature or extent of his early education; and it is a matter of conjecture whether he owed the vast erudition he has displayed in every branch of human knowledge to careful training in youth, or to his own extensive researches and patient studies in mature years. While still young, he conceived a Platonic passion for Beatrice Portinari – a passion destined to have a lasting influence upon his heart and genius. She became his ideal of beauty and perfection, to be translated into sonnets, songs, and ballads, a collection of which he published at twenty-six, under the title of "The New Life."

Dante took an active part in the political strifes of his native city; and in 1302, while on a mission to the Pope at Rome, was banished from Florence, his property confiscated, and he was even condemned to be burnt alive if he returned.

From this moment began for Dante "the slow, bitter, lingering death -the Hell of Exile-which none can know but the exile himself." He sought a refuge at Verona, then at Bologna, Padua, and finally at Ravenna. His wanderings, some authorities say, carried him even to Paris, and there for a time he studied theology. After many fruitless attempts he obtained permission, in 1315, to return to Florence; but it was coupled with such humiliating conditions that he refused to submit to them. In 1321 he died at Ravenna, where he had spent the few tranquil years of his unhappy wanderings.

one.

Beatrice, whom Dante, it is said, scarcely knew personally, married young, and died at twenty-five. Some years after, Dante married Gemma Donati, who bore him six children; but the marriage was not a happy Boccaccio describes Dante as a figure of middle height, with noble and well-marked features, face long, nose aquiline, eyes large, under-lip projecting, complexion dark, hair and beard black, thick, and wavy. The expression of the eyes and mouth especially indicating profound and melancholy feeling. In all his relations he was modest and reserved, speaking rarely but with eloquent force. He was fond of female society, in which he showed much politeness and gaiety. Though simple in his manner of living, he bestowed considerable attention on his dress and general appearance.

After Dante's death a mask was taken, in plaster, of the face, from which terra-cotta busts were made, and his best portrait obtained. Here Dante appears with a long and pointed nose, slightly curved; the eyes are deeply sunk beneath strong evenly-arched eyebrows, with a deep wrinkle between them; the mouth has a spiritual and ironic expression, under-lip slightly projecting, with chin and cheek-bones somewhat pro

D

minent. The whole head expresses intellect and vigour, strong will, and habits of meditation. Raphael painted Dante, after the mask likeness, in two of his principal works, and a large number of paintings, statues, and medals have repeated and familiarized his face until it has become one of the most authentic and best-known portraits in existence.

To an Italian, the life of Dante is summed up in one line,-he loved Beatrice and wrote the "Divine Comedy." This master-piece was the foundation of modern Italian. It was written by Dante in exile, circulated in fragmentary manuscripts during his life, and not published until after his death, either because he wished to perfect it by repeated emendations, or because he feared the vengeance of his enemies, who are attacked in it in a bitter and sarcastical spirit. Its three distinct poems, "The Inferno," "The Purgatory," and "The Paradise," describe punishment without end or hope, expiatory sufferings, and eternal felicity. Certain writers of our century find in them traces of a high moral purpose. "Dante was a sincere patriot," they say, and "frightened at the symptoms of decay visible in Christian society, he wished to save his compatriots, and wrote the Divine Comedy' to indicate the way of salvation."

The imposing structure of this triple poem, the prodigious variety of scenes it describes, and the local colour he has given them; the energy of some, the grace of others; their wonderful simplicity, their original and primitive type; give to the poem a place in literature, which neither its defects, nor the change of tastes that time has brought, can take away. It is a complete personification of the intense religious spirit of he Middle Ages, and fully justifies the title posterity has bestowed upon ts author, of the "Christian Homer."

RABELAIS was the youngest son of an innkeeper in a small French town. At ten years of age he was put to school at an abbey, afterwards at a convent, and later, in accordance with his father's desire, he joined one of the Mendicant orders, and spent fifteen years in a monastery.

As a consequence of all this, two sentiments became deeply rooted in his mind, a love of letters, and a hatred of monks; his strong passion for literature, both ancient and modern, subjected him to violent persecution from his brother monks. He was suspected of eating forbidden fruit, his cell was searched, and they found profane works -- Greek. His books were confiscated, and he was placed in confinement.

Other biographers assert that his imprisonment was due to the irreverent practical jokes he played on his companions.