When he recovered his senses, he found himself in the hands of the lady he had first seen in the place, who bidding him keep firm hold of her, drew him into the river Lethe, and so through and across it to the other side, speeding as she went like a weaver’s shuttle, and immersing him when she arrived, the angels all the while singing, “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow."[57] She then delivered him into the hands of the nymphs that had danced about the car,—­nymphs on earth, but stars and cardinal virtues in heaven; a song burst from the lips of the angels; and Faith, Hope, and Charity, calling upon Beatrice to unveil her face, she did so; and Dante quenched the ten-years thirst of his eyes in her ineffable beauty.[58]

After a while he and Statius were made thoroughly regenerate with the waters of Eunoe; and he felt pure with a new being, and fit to soar into the stars.

[Footnote 1: 

  “Dolce color d’oriental zaffiro
  Che s’accoglieva nel serenoaspetto
  De l’aer puro infino al primo giro,
  A gli occhi miei ricomincio diletto,
  Tosto ch’io usci’ fuor de l’aura morta
  Che m’avea contristati gli occhi e ’l petto.

  Lo bel pianeta, ch’ad amar conforta,
  Faceva tutto rider l’oriente,
  Velando i Pesci, ch’erano in sua scorta.

  Io mi volsi a man destra, e posi mente
  All’altro polo, e vidi quattro stelle
  Non viste mai, fuor ch’a la prima gente;

  Goder pareva ’l ciel di lor fiammelle. 
  O settentrional vedovo sito,
  Poi che privato sei di mirar quelle!”

  The sweetest oriental sapphire blue,
  Which the whole air in its pure bosom had,
  Greeted mine eyes, far as the heavens withdrew;

  So that again they felt assured and glad,
  Soon as they issued forth from the dead air,
  Where every sight and thought had made them sad.

  The beauteous star, which lets no love despair,
  Made all the orient laugh with loveliness,
  Veiling the Fish that glimmered in its hair.

  I turned me to the right to gaze and bless,
  And saw four more, never of living wight
  Beheld, since Adam brought us our distress;

  Heaven seemed rejoicing in their happy light. 
  O widowed northern pole, bereaved indeed,
  Since thou hast had no power to see that sight!

Readers who may have gone thus far with the “Italian Pilgrim’s Progress,” will allow me to congratulate them on arriving at this lovely scene, one of the most admired in the poem.

This is one of the passages which make the religious admirers of Dante inclined to pronounce him divinely inspired; for how could he otherwise have seen stars, they ask us, which were not discovered till after his time, and which compose the constellation of the Cross?  But other commentators are of opinion, that the Cross, though not so named till subsequently (and Dante, we see, gives no prophetic hint about the