404 ARIADNE FLOEENTINA. 



ing true. Their work among men is the definition of what is, 

 and the abiding by it. They cannot dream of what is not. 

 They make fools of themselves if they try. Think how feeble 

 even Shakspeare is when he tries his hand at a Goddess ; 

 women, beautiful and womanly, as many as you choose ; but 

 who cares what his Minerva or Juno, say in the masque of the 

 Tempest ? And for the painters when Sir Joshua tries for a 

 Madonna, or Vandyke for a Diana they can't even paint! 



any of them ? I think not. The Sistine paintings extend from 1481 to 

 1484, however. I cannot help thinking Zipporah is impressed with 

 her.) After Savonarola's death, Sandro must have lost heart, and gone 

 into Dante altogether. Most ways in literature and art lead to Dante ; 

 and this question about the nude and the purity of Botticelli is no ex- 

 ception to the rule. 



" Now in the Purgatorio, Lust is the last sin of which we are to be 

 made pure, and it has to be burnt out of us : being itself as searching 

 as fire, as smouldering, devouring, and all that. Corruptio optimi pes- 

 sima : and it is the most searching and lasting of evils, because it really 

 is a corruption attendant on true Love, which is eternal whatever the 

 word means. That this is so, seems to me to demonstrate the truth of 

 the Fall of Man from the condition of moral very-goodness in God's 

 sight. And I think that Dante connected the purifying pains of his in- 

 termediate state with actual sufferings in this life, working out repen- 

 tance, in himself and others. And the 'torment' of this passion, to 

 the repentant or resisting, or purity-seeking soul is decidedly like the 

 pain of physical burning. 



" Further, its casuistry is impracticable ; because the more you stir 

 the said ' fire,' the stronger hold it takes. Therefore, men and women 

 are riglilly secret about it, and detailed confessions unadvisable. Much 

 talk about ' hypocrisy ' in this matter is quite wrong and unjust. Then, 

 its connexion with female beauty, as a cause of love between man and 

 woman, seems to me to be the inextricable nodus of the Fall, the here 

 inseparable mixture of good and evil, till soul and body are parted. 

 For the sense of seen Beauty is the awakening of Love, at whatever 

 distance from any kind of return or sympathy as with a rose, or what 

 not. Sandro may be the man who has gone nearest to the right separa- 

 tion of Delight from Desire : supposing that he began with religion and 

 a straight conscience ; saw lovingly the error of Fra Filippo's way ; saw 

 with intense distant love the error of Simonetta's ; and reflected on 

 Florence and its way, and drew nearer and nearer to Savonarola, being 

 vet too big a man for asceticism ; and finally wearied of all things, and 

 .sunk into poverty and peace. '* 



