■2^2 DANTE S TREATISE ON GOVERNMENT. 



We are, therefore, obliged to recur to a work written in Latin, 

 AA hich the poet meant to be an exposition of his theories of Govern- 

 ment : the three books de Monarchia. 



The very choice of Latin for the vehicle of the thoughts of his 

 ■own Government shows that he Intended to appeal to a smaller 

 circle of his contemporaries and the larger circle of posterity. For 

 he thought that the Italian languages were less adapted to give 

 expression to philosophical speculation, and, being subject to con- 

 stant change in the meaning of the words, a less durable record of 

 his thoughts than Latin. He could Hardly be expected to foresee 

 that although his Divina Commedia with its "eloquencia vulgaris" 

 would create a new literature, and be one of the world's imperish- 

 able monuments. 



Quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens 

 Possit diruere, aut innumerabilis 

 Annorum series et fuga temporum; 



his laboriously planned work in Latin would be unknown ta 

 thousands who would have learned to revere the man who in the 

 Divina Commedia had revealed the thoughts of many hearts. 



If Dante could have been asked who his master was in poli- 

 tical science, I feel sure that he would have answered, Aristotle. 

 With the exception of the Bible no work is quoted more often 

 than the Latin translation of the worlds of him whom Dante calls 

 *' il maestro di color che sanno.* " That glorious philosopher to 

 whom most of all Nature has opened her secrets "t was the oracle 

 to whom he looked for inspiration Avith regard to the political 

 problems of the thirteenth century, because he firmly believed 

 that behind the maxims of the Greek writer were the eternal dic- 

 tates of reason. His attitude may be illustrated bv the sentence 

 Avith which he concludes one of his arguments based on a principle 

 of Aristotle's -.l 



"Quod quidem non solum gloriosum nomen auctoris facit esse credendum 

 sed ratio inductiva." 



But let no one imagine that in the work de Moiiarcliia Dante 

 set out to give a mere rehash of Aristotle's Politics; with all his 

 reverence for the Greek he expressly disclaims any such idea ; 



"For what fruit would he bring forth who would again prove some 

 theorem of Euclid .' Or who would demonstrate once more the nature of 

 liappiness as Aristotle has done ? Or who would again take up the defence 

 of old ;!ge since Cicero has defended it ? None at all; but such a tiresomely 

 superfluous task would produce disgust,"** 



An original mind like Dante's could not follow blindly in the 

 wake of another. For him it was both a necessity and a moral 

 duty to revise the opinions of his teachers and beein to build 

 where they had left off. All those, he would say, who have the 

 truth and have been enriched by the labours of the ancients have a 

 duty so to work in the field that they have inherited, that posterity 

 shall be the richer in truth because they have lived. Only these, 

 he says, can lay claim to the blessing of the Book of Psalms : 

 * ' he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that 



•Inf. IV 131. t Com. Ill 5. 



J de Men., V. 19. ** De Mon., I. 20. 



