dare to say that Gherardo
de Cammino was not noble? And who would not agree with me in saying
that he was noble? Certainly none, however presumptuous they may wish
to be, because he was noble and such will his memory ever be. And if
his ignoble ancestors had not been utterly forgotten (as our opponent
asserts) and he had become noble and his nobility were as evident as
we see it to be, then it would have existed in him before its
generation had existed, and this is perfectly impossible.

The fourth difficulty is that such a man (as this supposed ancestor)
would be considered noble, being dead, who was not noble when living;
and a more impossible thing there could not be as may be demonstrated
thus:

Let us suppose that in the age of Dardanus there remained a memory of
his low-born ancestors, and let us suppose that in the age of Laomedon
this memory had died out and oblivion taken its place. According to
our opponent's opinion, Laomedon was noble, and Dardanus ignoble
during life. Should we, to whom the memory of their ancestors (I mean
beyond Dardanus) has not come down, should we say that Dardanus while
alive was a common peasant, and dead became noble? And this is not
contradicted by the story that he was the son of Jupiter (for this is
a fable, of which, in a philosophical discussion, we should take no
heed); and yet if our opponent should wish to fall back on the fable,
certainly that which is covered by the fable would upset all his
arguments.

And thus it is manifest that the argument of which who would make
oblivion the cause of nobility is false and erroneous.

II

OF BEATRICE AND HER DEATH[27]

Nine times now, since my birth, the heaven of light had turned almost
to the same point in its own gyration, when the glorious lady of my
mind, who was called Beatrice by many who knew not why she was so
called, first appeared before my eyes. She had already been in this
life so long that in its course the starry heaven had moved toward the
region of the East one of the twelve parts of a degree; so that at
about the beginning of her ninth year she appeared to me, and I near
the end of my ninth year saw her. She appeared to me clothed in a most
noble color, a modest and becoming crimson, and she was girt and
adorned in such wise as befitted her very youthful age....

[Footnote 27: From "The New Life." Translated by Charles Eliot Norton.
Copyright, 1867, 1892, 1895, by Houghton Mifflin Company.]

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