I. c. 1), "because the goodness is in the meaning, and
the beauty in the ornament of the words" (Convito, Tr. II. c. 12).
[108] Convito, Tr. III. c. 14.
[109] Convito, Tr. IV. c. 22.
[110] Convito, Tr. III. c. 6.
[111] Convito, Tr. III. c. 2. By _potenzia_ and _potenza_ Dante means
the faculty of receiving influences or impressions. (Paradiso, XIII.
61; XXIX. 34.) Reason is the "sovran potency" because it makes us
capable of God.
[112]
"O thou _well-born_, unto whom Grace concedes
To see the thrones of the Eternal triumph,
Or ever yet the warfare be abandoned."
Paradiso, V. 115-118.
[113] Convito, Tr. IV. c. 21.
[114] Convito, Tr. III. c. 7.
[115] Inferno, X. 55, 56; Paradiso, XXII. 112-117.
[116] Convito, Tr. I. c. 23 (cf. Inferno, I. IV).
[117] Convito, Tr. III. c. 3; Paradiso, XVIII. 108-130.
[118] See an excellent discussion and elucidation of this matter by
Witte, who so highly deserves the gratitude of all students of Dante,
in Dante Alighieri's Lyrische Gedichte, Theil II. pp. 48-57. It was
kindly old Boccaccio, who, without thinking any harm, first set this
nonsense agoing. His "Life of Dante" is mainly a rhetorical exercise.
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