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206 defeat, which are worse than failure in argument. Dante had been born in the Guelf party, which held such views in abhorrence, and in it had been bred, at least until he reached the days of the 'Vita Nuova,' and began to interest himself in the larger, manly issues of politics and government; therefore his promulgation of the Ghibelline creed and distinctive doctrine was in itself a remarkable fact. And even now he was a moderate Ghibelline, going to no excess; so that we may be sure that the pretensions of the universal monarch, whom he preaches, were stated without exaggeration. The outline of the absolute ruler, whose despotism is held in check by the moral perfections with which it is necessary he should be endowed, but by no other restraint—and who is made capable of universal sway by, to state it in homely words, the impossibility of bettering himself, the fact that he has reached the very height of mortal ambition, beyond all reach of cupidity, or even the wish of acquisition,—is in itself a bewildering picture. We quote as an example of the argument one of the few passages which can be detached. He has been arguing that the sway of this great monarch, whose supremacy is such that nothing remains for him to acquire or even hope for, is the sole means of procuring general peace:—

"To all the above arguments a memorable example bears witness. This is the condition of mortal affairs which the Son of God waited for in order to assume flesh for the salvation of man. For when we survey in our minds the ages and dispositions of men, from the transgression of our first forefathers, which was the beginning of all our errors, we shall not find a time when the world was at peace and quiet, save under Caesar Augustus, who was the monarch in a state of perfect monarchy. But that the human race was then happy