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Lowell, James Russell, 1819-1891

"Among My Books Second Series"

And so
is limited and measured in the angelic nature the amount of that
_wisdom_ which the nature of each is capable of receiving." Man is,
according to Dante, superior to the angels in this, that he is
capable both of reason and contemplation, while they are confined to
the latter. That Beatrice's reproaches refer to no human
_pargoletta_, the context shows, where Dante asks,
"But wherefore so beyond my power of sight
Soars your desirable discourse that aye
The more I strive, so much the more I lose it?
That thou mayst recognize, she said, the school
Which thou hast followed, and mayst see how far
Its doctrine follows after my discourse,
And mayst behold your path from the divine
Distant as far as separated is
From earth the heaven that highest hastens on."
Purgatorio, XXXIII. 82-90.
The _pargoletta_ in its ordinary sense was necessary to the literal
and human meaning, but it is shockingly discordant with that
non-natural interpretation which, according to Dante's repeated
statement, lays open the true and divine meaning.

[144] "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye
are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you.


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