of those visions of beauty and truth in which his soul lived, and which visions and experiences constitute his peculiar greatness.  Dante was not so close an observer of human nature as Shakspeare, nor so great a painter of human actions as Homer, nor so learned a scholar as Milton; but his soul was more serious than either,—­he was deeper, more intense than they; while in pathos, in earnestness, and in fiery emphasis he has been surpassed only by Hebrew poets and prophets.

It would seem from his numerous biographies that he was remarkable from a boy; that he was a youthful prodigy; that he was precocious, like Cicero and Pascal; that he early made great attainments, giving utterance to living thoughts and feelings, like Bacon, among boyish companions; lisping in numbers, like Pope, before he could write prose; different from all other boys, since no time can be fixed when he did not think and feel like a person of maturer years.  Born in Florence, of the noble family of the Alighieri, in the year 1265, his early education devolved upon his mother, his father having died while the boy was very young.  His mother’s friend, Brunetto Latini, famous as statesman and scholarly poet, was of great assistance in directing his tastes and studies.  As a mere youth he wrote sonnets, such as Sordello the Troubadour would not disdain to own.  He delights, as a boy, in those inquiries which gave fame to Bonaventura.  He has an intuitive contempt for all quacks and pretenders.  At Paris he maintains fourteen different theses, propounded by learned men, on different subjects, and gains universal admiration.  He is early selected by his native city for important offices, which he fills with honor.  In wit he encounters no superiors.  He scorches courts by sarcasms which he can not restrain.  He offends the great by a superiority which he does not attempt to veil.  He affects no humility, for his nature is doubtless proud; he is even offensively conscious and arrogant.  When Florence is deliberating about the choice of an ambassador to Rome, he playfully, yet still arrogantly, exclaims:  “If I remain behind, who goes? and if I go, who remains behind?” His countenance, so austere and thoughtful, impresses all beholders with a sort of inborn greatness; his lip, in Giotto’s portrait, is curled disdainfully, as if he lived among fools or knaves.  He is given to no youthful excesses; he lives simply and frugally.  He rarely speaks unless spoken to; he is absorbed apparently in thought.  Without a commanding physical person, he is a marked man to everybody, even when he deems himself a stranger.  Women gaze at him with wonder and admiration, though he disdains their praises and avoids their flatteries.  Men make way for him as he passes them, unconsciously.  “Behold,” said a group of ladies, as he walked slowly by them, “there is a man who has visited hell!” To the close of his life he was a great devourer of books, and digested their contents.  His studies were as various as they