This interpretation is confirmed by Paradiso, XIX.
49-51.
"E quinci appar _ch' ogni minor natura
E corto recettacolo a quel bene
Che non ha fine_, e se con se misura."
[166] "Wisdom of Solomon," VII. 26, quoted by Dante (Convito, Tr.
III. c. 15) There are other passages in the "Wisdom of Solomon"
besides that just cited which we may well believe Dante to have had
in his mind when writing the Canzone beginning,--
"Amor che nella mente mi ragiona,"
and the commentary upon it, and some to which his experience of life
must have given an intenser meaning. The writer of that book also
personifies Wisdom as the mistress of his soul: "I loved her and
sought her out from my youth, I desired to make her my spouse, and I
was a lover of her beauty." He says of Wisdom that she was "present
when thou (God) madest the world," and Dante in the same way
identifies her with the divine Logos, citing as authority the
"beginning of the Gospel of John." He tells us, "I perceived that I
could not otherwise obtain her except God gave her me," and Dante
came at last to the same conclusion. Again, "For the very true
beginning of her is the desire of discipline; and the care of
discipline is love.
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