58o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in tlie chair of St. Peter ; the seraphim, cherubim, and thrones, 

 surrounding the Almighty, as real as the cardinals surrounding 

 the Pope ; the three great orders of angels in heaven as real as 

 the three great orders, bishops, priests, and deacons, on earth ; 

 and the whole system of spheres each revolving within the one 

 above it and all moving about the earth, subject to the primum 

 mobile, as real as the feudal system of western Europe, subject 

 to the emperor.* 



Let us look into this vast creation— the highest achievement 

 of theology — somewhat more closely. 



Its first feature shows an evolution : the earth is no longer the 

 flat plain inclosed by four walls and solidly vaulted above, as 

 theologians of previous centuries had believed it, under the in- 

 spiration of the monk Cosmas ; it is no longer a mere flat disk 

 with sun, moon, and stars hung up to give it light, as the earlier 

 cathedral sculptors had figured it ; it has become a globe at the 

 center of the universe. Encompassing it are ten successive, 

 transparent spheres, nine of them rotated by angels about the 

 earth, and each carrying one of the heavenly bodies with it : that 

 nearest the earth carrying the moon; the next. Mercury; the 

 next, Venus ; the next, the sun ; the next three. Mars, Jupiter, 

 and, Saturn. The tenth heaven, inclosing all these, was the em- 

 pyrean This was immovable,— the boundary between creation 

 and the great outer void; and here, in a light which no one can 

 enter, the Triune God sat enthroned— the "music of the spheres 

 rising to him as they move. 



In attendance upon the Divine Majesty, thus enthroned are 

 vast hosts of angels, and these are divided into three hierarchies, 

 one serving in the empyrean, one in the heaven between the 

 empyrean and the earth, and one on the earth. _ 



Each of these hierarchies is divided into three choirs or 

 orders; the first, into the orders of Seraphim, Cherubim, and 

 Thrones; and the main occupation of these is to chant inces- 

 santly, to " continually cry " the divine praises. 



The order of thrones conveys God's will to the second hie- 

 rarchy—which serves in the movable heavens. This second 

 hierarchy is also made up of three orders. The first of these, the 



* For the central sun, hierarchy of angels, and concentric circles, see Dante, Paradiso, 

 canto xxYiii. For the words of St. Thomas Aquinas, showing to Virgil and mnte 

 the great theologians of the middle ages, see canto x, and in Dean Plumptres trans- 

 lation, vol. ii, pp. 66 et seg.; also Botta, Dante, pp. 350, 351. As to Dante s deep re- 

 ligious feeling and belief in his own divine mission, see J. R. Lowell, Among my 

 Books vol i p. 36. For a remarkable series of colored engravings showing Dante s 

 whole 'cosmology, see La Materia della Divina Commcdia di Dante dichiarata in vi tavole 

 da Michelangelo Caetani, published by the monks of Monte Casslno, to whose kindness 

 the wfiter is indebted for bis copy. 



