rty enjoyed. The arguments to maintain these theses are
ingenious, and in some instances forcible; but are too abstract, and too
disregardful of the actual conditions of society. Dante's loftiness of
view, his fine ideal of the possibilities of human life, and his ardent
desire to improve its actual conditions, are manifest throughout, and
give value to the little book as a treatise of morals beyond that which
it possesses as a manual of practical politics.

There is little in the 'De Monarchia' which reflects the heat of the
great secular debate between Guelf and Ghibelline; but something of the
passion engendered by it finds expression in the opening of the third
book, where Dante, after citing the words of the prophet Daniel, "He
hath shut the lions' mouths and they have not hurt me, forasmuch as
before him justice was found in me," goes on in substance as follows:--

"The truth concerning the matter which remains to be treated may
perchance arouse indignation against me. But since Truth from her
changeless throne appeals to me, and Solomon teaches us 'to
meditate on truth, and to hate the wicked,' and the philosopher
[Aristotle], our instructor in morals, urges us for the sake of
truth to disregard what is dear to us, I, taking confidence from
the words of Daniel in which the Divine power is declared to be the
shield of the defenders of the truth, ... will enter on the present
contest; and by the arm of Him who by his blood delivered us from
the power of darkness, I will drive out from the lists the impious
and the liar. Wherefore should I fear? since the Spirit, co-eternal
with the Father and the Son, says through the mouth of David, 'The
righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance, he shall not be
afraid of evil tidings.'"

These words perhaps justify the inference that the treatise was written
before his exile, since after it his experience of calamity would have
freed him from the anticipation of further evil from the hostility of
those to whom his doctrine might be unacceptable.

But whether or not this be a correct inference, there can be no doubt
that the years between the compilation of the 'New Life' and his
banishment were years of rapid maturity of his powers, and largely
devoted to the studies which made him a master in the field of learning.
Keenly observant of the aspects of contemporary life, fascinated by the
"immense and