his modes of expression and to be accustomed
to the wonderful compression of his style to appreciate his full
significance. There is {347} no lack of good authorities, however, who
have made deep studies in Dante, to bring out for us the complete
import of all the references to the science of his time, which Dante
was tempted to make. We have perhaps been prone to think, in
English-speaking countries, that no poets have ever kept more
thoroughly in touch with the progress of science, or at least have
ever used references to scientific details with more accuracy, than
some of our own nineteenth century poets. A little study of the first
great poet of modern times, in whom Carlyle said "ten silent centuries
found a voice," though Dante by no means stands alone in the century,
but is the culmination of a series of great poets, will show that he
probably must be considered as taking the palm even from our most
modern of poets in this respect. If the expressions in text-books of
the history of education are to be accepted as evidence of the
thoughts of educators with regard to the details of education in
Dante's time, even a brief sketch of Dante's scientific knowledge will
be a supreme surprise to them.

As will be at once appreciated, Dante was not a specialist in science,
but used the knowledge of science current in his day in order to drive
home his thoughts by means of figures. It is surprising, however, what
a marvelous display of scientific knowledge, entirely without
pedantry, which anyone who knows his supreme compression of style will
realize to be the fault Dante is least liable to, was thus made by
this educated literary man of the thirteenth century. Dr. L. Oscar
Kuhns, Professor in Wesleyan University, has in his little book The
Treatment of Nature in Dante's Divina Commedia, suggested a comparison
between Dante and Goethe. [Footnote 44 ] {348} Everyone realizes at
once how profound a scientist was Goethe. Professor Kuhns' comparison,
then, will bring out the scientific qualities of this great medieval
poet, who is the representative scholar of the universities of his
time.

[Footnote 44: The Treatment of Nature in Dante's Divina Commedia, by
L. Oscar Kuhns, Professor in Wesleyan University, Middletown, U. S. A.
Edward Arnold, London and New York. 1897.]

"There is perhaps no innate contradiction between science and
poetry, but it is not often that they are found together in the same
man. Dante, like