he clouds that gather around the setting
sun. One fine passage describes the spectator following them with
his eyes as they lose themselves in the distance."

It is no wonder, then, that Prof. Kuhns should be quite enthusiastic
with regard to Dante's use of astronomical knowledge. He insists,
however, that while it was his poetic soul and love for the stars that
tempted him to allow his thoughts to wander so frequently into the
realm of the celestial bodies, his interest was always profoundly
scientific. His passage to this effect is worth while quoting _in
extenso_, because it brings out this fact very clearly. As Prof.
Kuhns' only idea in this was to show how marvelously the
representative poet of the Middle Ages turned to nature in his poetry,
and there was no thought of controverting the foolish notions of those
who so lightly declare that the students of the {353} Middle Age
universities knew nothing of science, the paragraph is a bit of very
striking evidence in this matter.

"Dante's love for the stars was largely scientific; he knew
thoroughly the Ptolemaic system of astronomy, which forms the
framework of the whole structure of the Paradiso. We find constant
and accurate allusions to the constellations, their various shapes
and positions in the heavens; while the hour of the day and the
season of the year are often referred to in terms of astronomical
science, frequently interwoven with mythology. But besides this
scientific interest, he was deeply touched by the beauty, the
mystery and the tranquilizing power of the celestial orbs. There is
hardly a phase of them that he has not touched upon; many of his
descriptions and allusions have a truth and vividness unsurpassed
even in this present day of nature worship. Here, as elsewhere in
the Divina Commedia, science and learning and poetry go hand in
hand. We have no mere dry catalogue of facts, but the wonderful
mechanism of the starry heavens is brought before our eyes, rolling
its spheres in celestial harmony, radiant with light and splendour,
while the innumerable company of angels and the 'spirits of just men
made perfect' raise the chorus of praise to the Alto Fattore."

We cannot but add the reflection that, as our own poets of the
nineteenth century indulged themselves in figures drawn from science
not only because of their own interest in the subject, but because
they realized the interest of the men of their tim