tine glutton Ciacco. Fancying this shade may possess
some insight into the future, Dante inquires what is to become of his
native city, and learns that one political party will drive out the
other, only to fall in its turn three years later. The glutton adds
that only two just men are left in Florence, and, when Dante asks what
has become of his friends, tells him he will doubtless meet them in
the various circles of Hades, should he continue his downward course.

Then the spirit begs that, on returning to the "pleasant world," Dante
will recall him to his friends' memory, and, closing his eyes, sinks
back among the other victims, all of whom are more or less blind.
Vouchsafing the information that this sinner will not rise again "ere
the last angel trumpet blow," Virgil leads Dante over the foul mixture
of shades and mud, explaining that, although the accursed can never
hope to attain perfection, they are not entirely debarred from
improvement.

_Canto VII._ Talking thus, the two travellers descend to the fourth
circle, ruled by Plutus, god of wealth, who allows them to proceed,
only after Virgil has informed him their journey is ordained, and is
to be pursued to the very spot where Michael confined Satan. The mere
mention of his master, the ex-archangel, causes Plutus to grovel; and
Dante and Virgil, proceeding on their journey, discover that the
fourth circle is occupied by all whom avarice mastered, as well as by
prodigals, who are here condemned to roll heavy rocks, because their
lives on earth were spent scuffling for money or because they failed
to make good use of their gold. Dante descries among the victims
tonsured polls, proving that monks themselves are not exempt from
these sins. Meanwhile Virgil expounds how the Creator decreed nations
should wield the mastery in turn, adding that these people are victims
of Fortune, whose proverbial fickleness he ably describes.

After passing a well, whose boiling waters overflow and form a stream,
they follow the latter's downward course to the marsh called Styx,
where hundreds of naked creatures wallow in the mire, madly clutching
and striking each other. Virgil explains that these are those "whom
anger overcame," and adds that the sullen are buried beneath the slimy
waters, where their presence is betrayed by bubbles caused by their
breath which continually rise to the surface. Edging around this
loathsome pool, the two poets finally arrive at the door of a tall
to