Clarity in darkness

“Master,” I said, “the clarity of your mind
impresses all you touch. I see quite clearly
the orders of this dark pit of the blind.”
— Dante to Virgil, in Canto XI of The Inferno (Ciardi translation)

Even darkness has an order which can be articulated, which must be articulated if we are to find our way through it and out of it. And is not this our very task as traditionalists in liberal society?

A little later in the same canto, after Virgil has answered a difficult question about the distinctions between the several categories of sin that are being punished in the seventh circle of Hell, Dante’s gratitude to his guide breaks forth anew:

“O sun which clears all mists from troubled sight,
such joy attends your rising that I feel
as grateful to the dark as to the light.”

Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 03, 2011 08:53 AM | Send