DISCOVERY 



279 



of mankind's progress. A civilisation, for instance, 

 affects the later history of the world not nearly so much 

 by its imperial power as by the progress that it makes in 

 thought and mental ideals. The poetry of a David or 

 a Dante ; the teaching of Buddha or Socrates or Plato 

 or Paul — to appeal to no other names — have been a 

 much greater influence in the world than the general- 

 ship of Alexander the Great or Napoleon Buonaparte. 

 * * * * * 



In conclusion, we emphasise the immediate need of 

 spreading knowledge and culture and the desire for 

 them throughout this country and this Empire. Be- 

 hind all voluntary action, individual or concerted, lies 

 thought ; so much uninstructed thinking on every 

 problem, social, political, scientific, is apparent nowa- 

 days, that the need for true knowledge and for the habit 

 of seeking it humbly and patiently is imperative ; 

 without true knowledge there is wrong thought ; with 

 wrong thought there will be wrong action, and in 

 national and international affairs, which are steadily 

 becoming more complicated, disaster and chaos will 

 most certainly ensue. True knowledge makes us 

 understand ourselves and others ; it will lend us 

 sympathy and give durability' and foresight to our 

 individual, our social, and our political life. Four 

 years after the Battle of Waterloo, when Europe was 

 in much the same position as she is to-day, struggling 

 to free herself from the aftermath of protracted wars, 

 a great poet saw this need, and completed one of his 

 lyrical plays ^ with these lines ; 



" Gentleness, Virtue, Wisdom, and Endurance, 



These are the seals of that most firm assurance 

 Which bars the pit over Destruction's strength ; 



And if. with infirm hand. Eternity, 



Mother of many acts and hours, should free 



The serpent that would clasp her with his length ; 



These are the spells by which to reassume 



An empire o'er the disentangled gloom. 



To suffer woes which Hope thinks infinite. 



To forgive wrongs darker than death or night ; 

 To defy Power, which seems omnipotent ; 



To love, and bear ; to hcpe till Hope creates 



From its own wreck the thing it contemplates ; 

 Neither to change, nor falter, nor repent ; 



This, like thy glory. Titan, is to be 



Good, great and joyous, beautiful and free ; 



This is alone Life, Joy, Empire, and Victory." 



The October number of The Geographical Journal contains, 

 amongst other interesting features, some remarkable photo- 

 graphs of Mount Everest and its surroundings, taken by Lieut, - 

 Col. Howard Bury, D.S.O., Chief of the Mount Everest Expedi- 

 tion. The Bulletin of the League of Red Cross Societies 

 (published every two months at Geneva in English, French, 

 Italian, and Spanish) is a sign of the developments that are 

 occurring in international co-operation in the world of surgery 

 and medicine. Amongst other articles in the July-August 

 issue are descriptions of the famine in China, new aeroplane 

 ambulances, and new methods of combating tuberculosis. 

 1 Shelley, Prometheus Unbound. 



Dante's Lyrical Poems 



By Edmund G. Gardner, Litt.D. 



Professur o/ Iltttian Studies in tite Uniucrsilu of Mancliester 



Italy has just celebrated the sixth centenary of the 

 death of Dante, not only by solemn functions at 

 Ravenna, Florence, and Rome, but also — in a more 

 permanent fashion — by the publication, under the 

 auspices of the Societa Dantcsca ItaUana, of the first 

 critical edition of the text of his complete works. A 

 most noteworthy feature in this volume is the present- 

 ment of the Rime by Professor Michele Barbi, whose 

 researches — which have occupied him for many years 

 — have resulted, for the first time, in a clear discrimina- 

 tion between authentic, doubtful, and spurious com- 

 positions, and in a text which (if not in all respects 

 absolutely decisive, for that, given the manuscript 

 conditions under which they have come down to us, 

 would have been an impossible achievement) is an 

 immeasurable advance upon anything which we have 

 hitherto possessed. 



The Ritne — sometimes, less accurately, known as the 

 Canzoniere — is a collective title for Dante's lyrics, 

 more particularly those which he did not insert in the 

 Vita Nuova or which were written later. They include 

 canzoni, ballate, and sonnets. Italians, of course, 

 regard the last-named as a lyrical measure, and John 

 Addington Symonds, it will perhaps be remembered, 

 aptly described a sonnet as " essentially a meditative 

 lyric." English readers probably made their first 

 acquaintance with some of these poems in the selection 

 translated bj- Rossetti in Dante and his Circle. Rossetti 

 chose 3 canzoni (the sestina is only a special form 

 of canzone), i ballata, and ii sonnets. But those 

 were uncritical days. Two of the canzoni, " Love, 

 since it is thy will that I return " and " Death, since 

 I find not one with whom to grieve," the ballata, 

 " Because mine eyes can never have their fill," and two 

 of the sonnets, " My curse be on the day when first 

 I saw " and " The King by whose rich grace His ser- 

 vants be," are now known, beyond the shadow of a 

 doubt, to be the work of other poets than Dante. 

 Later, the standard of reference for the Rime, or 

 Canzoniere, has been the section devoted to them in 

 the Oxford Dante, based originally on Fraticelli, but 

 unsatisfactory as to the text, including many spurious 

 and excluding not a few unquestionablj' authentic 

 poems. For English readers, the little volume edited 

 by Dr. Wickstecd and Professor Okey in the Temple 

 Classics marked a distinct advance in all these 

 respects, but made no claim to be anything more than 

 provisional. Professor Barbi 's work now represents 

 the fulfilment of one of the most urgent needs of aU 

 students of Dante. 



