derstand, then, that Professor Kuhns should have been
enthusiastic with regard to Dante's knowledge of science. He says:

"The whole structure of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise shows a
thorough knowledge of the Ptolemaic system; and we invariably find
astronomical facts, mingled with classical quotations, in the
description of stellar phenomena. But not only in specific passages
do we find evidence of Dante's love for science, but in brief
allusions to the various aspects of nature--metaphors, {350}
figures, descriptions--a word or two is added, giving the cause of
the phenomenon in question. Examples of this abound."

It is with regard to astronomy, of course, that Dante has given us the
most convincing evidence of his knowledge of science, his interest in
nature and natural phenomena, his questioning spirit in nature study,
and the wonderful anticipations of his generation with regard to
knowledge that has usually been supposed to have been hidden from
them. The stars appealed to his poetic spirit, and then besides, his
great poem occupied itself with all the visible universe, and
especially with the parts outside this world. Professor Kuhns has
said:

"One may confidently assert that no such perfect lines descriptive of
the stars have ever been written. Shakespeare and others can furnish
famous passages, but none, I think, equal to those of Dante. They have
all the quality of his art--truth, clearness, possessing the power of
touching deeply the imagination, yet terse and compact, containing not
a word too much. We see the stars at all hours of the night, in all
degrees of brilliancy, fading away at the approach of dawn, gradually
appearing as twilight comes on, shining with splendor on a moonless
night, keenly sparkling after the winds have cleared the atmosphere,
or eclipsed by the greater effulgence of the moon. The motion of the
constellations about the pole is referred to, those which are nearest
to it never setting beneath the horizon."

It is often thought that the proper idea of the explanation of the
Milky Way was quite modern. Dante, however, discusses in his Convito
the theories of it that had been suggested up to his time, and then
gives his own {351} views, which he confesses are founded on
Aristotle, but which are evidently the result also of his own
thinking. Pythagoras, he said, attributed it to the scorching heat of
the sun, as if somehow this left a trace of itself even after the