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vestibule of Hell. Circle by circle and ring by ring the Lecturer 
followed Dante and Virgil and gave a graphic account of the 
spirits they met with and the form of punishment which was 
meted out to the degrees of their sins. In the case of suicides, 
their souls fell to the ground and out of them sprang trees. As 
they had robbed themselves of their bodies they were not to have 
a body again so that it could not be joined to their souls again 
when they all came together in the valley of Jehoshaphat. Among 
the lost souls were those of speculators, the civil equivalent of 
simony, those who made use of their profession as magistrates, 
etc., for their own ends. This was just the sin for which Dante 
had been falsely accused and for which he was banished from 
Florence. So that he was more in danger in that chasm than 
any one else. Then there were devils with forks in their hands 
and Dante had several times to go to Virgil for protection. In 
the end the devils begun to fight among themselves. Boiling 
pitch was there to torment the spirits. Dante was careful to tell 
them that while he was there no particle of black pitch touched 
him, and that was true, for Dante was a perfectly upright man. 
Among others who were in torment were those who gave evil 
counsel, the sowers of discord, and falsifiers. The two con- 
spirators, Brutus and Cassius, were there, so that it was almost 
as great a sin to have offended against the Empire as to have 
offended against our Lord himself. Dante was very careful to 
note the exact time that certain events took place. After 
journeying through the murky city of the lost, the two poets 
mounting upwards to the clear air, and out of the shores of 
Purgatory, ‘‘ issued forth to rebehold the stars.” 
In the course of the lecture, Mr. Matthews, in illustration of 
incidents in the journey and to show the fine language of Dante, 
read from the poem the episodes of Paolo and Francesca, the 
interview with Farinata degli Uberti, and the story of Ugolino 
who, with his sons and grandsons, was starved to death in the 
Tower at Pisa. 
Messrs. Joseland, F. J. Grant, J.P., J. Kay, J.P., Clement, 
the President and the Secretary took part in the discussion, and 
Mr. Matthews was heartily congratulated on the lecture, which, 
as a feat of memory alone, was remarkable. 
In his reply to a hearty vote of thanks, Mr. Matthews said the 
idea of the subject came largely from Virgil. Art nearly always 
ran on sacred subjects as in the case of Michael Angelo’s vision 
of the Last Judgment, the morality plays, with their realistic 
representations of the other world, etc. They were fond of 
seeing the other world and having it represented. On one of 
their great days of rejoicing, a representation over the bridge of the 
