Nor did these serious and solitary studies withdraw him from the pursuit of wisdom among men and in the active world.  Year by year, he entered more fully into the affairs of state, and took a larger portion of their conduct upon himself.

His heart kept fresh by abiding recollections of love, his faith quickened by and intermingled with the tenderest hopes, his imagination uplifted by the affection which overleaped the boundaries of the invisible world, and his intellect disciplined by study of books and of men, his experience enlarged by constant occupation in affairs, his judgment matured by the quick succession of important events in which he was involved,—­every part of his nature was thus prepared for the successful accomplishment of that great and sacred design which he set before himself now in his youth.  Heaven had called and selected him for a work which even in his own eyes partook somewhat of the nature of a prophetic charge.  His strength was to be tested and his capacity to be approved.  Life was ordered for the fulfilment of his commission.  The men to whom God intrusts a message for the world find the service to which they are appointed one in which they must be ready to sacrifice everything.  Dante looked forward, even at the beginning, to the end, and saw what lay between.

The pages of the “New Life” fitly close with words of that life in which all things shall be made new, “and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.”  The little book ends thus:—­

“Soon after this, a wonderful vision appeared to me, in which I saw things which made me purpose to speak no more of this blessed one until I could more worthily treat of her.  And to attain to this, I study to the utmost of my power, as she truly knoweth.  So that, if it shall please Him through whom all things live, that my life be prolonged for some years, I hope to speak of her as never was spoken of any woman.  And then may it please Him who is the Lord of Grace, that my soul may go to behold the glory of its lady, the blessed Beatrice, who in glory looks upon the face of Him, qui est per omnia saecula benedictus [who is Blessed forever]!”

In 1320, or perhaps not till 1321, the “Paradiso” was finished; in 1321, Dante died.

* * * * *

THE DOUBLE-HEADED SNAKE OF NEWBURY.

  “Concerning ye Amphisbaena, as soon as I received your commands, I made
  diligent inquiry:  he assures me y’t it had really two heads, one at each
  end, two mouths, two stings or tongues.”

  Rev. Christopher Toppan to Cotton Mather.

  Far away in the twilight time
  Of every people, in every clime,
  Dragons and griffins and monsters dire,
  Born of water, and air, and fire,
  Or nursed, like the Python, in the mud
  And ooze of the old Deucalion flood,
  Crawl and wriggle and foam with rage,
  Through dusk tradition and ballad age. 
  So from the childhood of Newbury town
  And its time of fable the tale comes down
  Of a terror which haunted bush and brake,
  The Amphisbaena, the Double Snake!