Dante on The Imagination, Love’s True Passion, Indulgence, and Hell

“There is a brief time when the Imagination—the power of grasping images and exploring distances of meaning—remains suspended in a contemplation. We use the word ‘intellect’, but what is usually meant by ‘intellect’ is rather a part of this thing than this of it; it is not a matter of worldly education, but of a sensitive apprehension and spiritual knowledge."

The Beatrician Moment

“The Beatrician moment is a moment of revelation and communicated conversion by means of a girl. This, as the Vita and the Commedia show, and as the Commedia is again presently to make clear, present the lover with a way of effort towards nobility and sanctity; say, of salvation—it is the simpler word. But he …

One of the Few Giant Strides Made by Man

But these guesses of ours confirm another historical truth of high importance. Such a reformer failed in the old heathen world because of the broad fact about that world- that popular religion was one thing, and personal philosophy quite another. Religion was a social function, almost in the sense that a dance or a dinner …

The Christian Humility

The truth is that there are no things for which men will make such herculean efforts as the things of which they know they are unworthy. There never was a man in love who did not declare that, if he strained every nerve to breaking, he was going to have his desire. And there never …