DANTE S TREATISE ON GOVERNMENT. 235 



It would be interesting-, but too lengthy an enquiry for our 

 ,prcsent purpose to trace the influence of contemporary history oo 

 xhis view of the poet's. The whole story of the time, we may say, 

 is a confirmatory commentary on it. The history of our own 

 times adds strength to his contentions. But that too is a long 

 tale. We are compelled to pass to the second question which he 

 raises : what is the best form of g^overnment? 



What strikes one forcibly in first perusing the books de 

 Monarchia is that the author discusses the best form of govern- 

 ment for the human race. " Quite an abstract problem ! " we 

 might be tempted to say now-a-days. But then it was a concrete 

 and a practical problem. The civilised world, as known to 

 Europe, was not such a colossal organism as to make the thought 

 'of a single government an absurditv. The World-Religion had 

 made the minds of men familiar with the ideal of a World- 

 Empire ; and the life of the European nations then reposed on a 

 basis of a common refigion. The dogma of the Communion of 

 Saints had prepared the minds of men for the purely political 

 notion of a brotherhood of man, and a family of nations under 

 'one paternal king. 



When the student of politics looked abroacl in the thirteenth 

 •century he found the Holy Roman Emperor in possession of a 

 -sceptre whose sway extended over the civilised globe, and was 

 -acknowledged on every side by all nations of Europe. He was 

 "the heir of the Caesars and cspeciallv of Augustus. He was the 

 -eldest son of the Church which men loved, and he was the oflficial 

 .arbiter in all international quarrels. Henry Yll. of Luxembourg, 

 who wielded this sceptre when Dante was writing his manual of 

 politics, was a sovereign who enjoved the high esteem of his 

 -contemporaries. A Guelf opponent, Dino Compagni, descriBes 

 him as "a wise and noble man, just and famous, thoroughly 

 loyal, brave in battle and of noble line, a man of great capacity 

 and great moderation." Friends and foes expected great things 

 \)f him. 



This was the aspect of the political horizon when Dante 

 scrutinised the signs of the times. It may help to explain why he 

 -iame to the conclusion that the rule of one emperor was the best 

 form of government for the world as then known. There is no 

 science in which theory so easily becomes the slave of a few irre- 

 levant facts as the quasi-science of politics. 



At anv rate, having settled his conclusion, Dante defended it 

 A\ ith all the ingenuity of a great mind. A single emperor of the 

 human race was the best form of government, he argued, because 

 the same order which exists in the parts of the human family 

 (nations) must exist in the whole (c. 8) ; order on earth must be 

 the reflex of order in heaven, where God reigns supreme and 

 alone (c. 9) ; there must be a supreme judge to decide the con- 

 troversies of kings and nations (c. 10): the emperor would have 

 greater power to enforce justice, would be placed above petty 

 ambitions, and would have a wider and so juster view of the good 

 of humanity (c. 11); such a monarch could" more easily be con- 

 ^t^rained to keep the public good in view, and would thus respect 

 "she liberty of his subjects (c. 12); one so highly placed would 



