and the thought of her death which came to him on the ninth day her death on the ninth day of the ninth month, 'computing by the Syrian method,' and in that year of our Lord 'when the perfect number ten was nine times completed in that century' which was the thirteenth. Whoever has read the Vita Nuova will remember the stress which Dante lays upon the mystic numbers Nine and Three his first meeting with Beatrice at the beginning of her ninth year, and the end of his his nine days' illness. In these lines we have the earliest glimpse of the Divine Comedy, as it rose in the author's mind.

And then may it please Him, who is the Sire of courtesy, that my soul may depart to look upon the glory of its Lady, that is to say, of the blessed Beatrice, who in glory gazes into the face of Him, qui est per omnia sæcula benedictus.' So that if it shall be the pleasure of Him, through whom all things live, that my life continue somewhat longer, I hope to say of her what never yet was said of any woman. And to attain thereunto, truly I strive with all my power, as she knoweth. The Divine Comedy.-The Vita Nuova of Dante closes with these words: 'After this sonnet there appeared to me a wonderful vision, in which I beheld things that made me propose to say no more of this blessed one, until I shall be able to treat of her more worthily.

The marquis inferno torrent