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                                 DANTE




                          THE VISION OF DANTE

               A STORY FOR LITTLE CHILDREN AND A TALK TO
                             THEIR MOTHERS

                                  BY

                          ELIZABETH HARRISON

                            SECOND EDITION

                      ILLUSTRATED BY WALTER CRANE

             PUBLISHED BY THE CHICAGO KINDERGARTEN COLLEGE
                 ART INSTITUTE BUILDING, CHICAGO, ILL.
                                 1894

                              COPYRIGHTED
                         BY ELIZABETH HARRISON
                                 1892

                          The Lakeside Press
                  R. R. DONNELLEY & SONS CO., CHICAGO




_PREFACE._


_Is not the reason why the Divine Comedy is called a “world poem” to be
found in these significant facts: it portrays the sudden awakening of a
human soul to the consciousness of having gone astray; it shows the
loathsome nature of sin; it pictures the struggle necessary to be freed
from sin; it emphasizes that God is ready to help as soon as the soul is
ready to be helped; and at last it declares that the Vision of God will
come to the soul which perseveres in the struggle? These are the
essential truths which make the great poem of Dante one of the
masterpieces of the world of art. May not it--as well as all other truly
great things--be given to little children in a simple way?_




THE VISION OF DANTE.


I want to tell a wonderful story to you, dear children. It has been told
over and over again for six hundred years, yet people keep reading it,
and re-reading it, and wise men never tire of studying it. Many great
artists have painted pictures, and sculptors have made statues, and
musicians have composed operas, and clergymen have written sermons from
thoughts inspired by it. A great poet first gave it to the world in the
form of a grand poem which some day you may read, but I will try to tell
it to you to-day as a short story. I am afraid that you would go to
sleep if I should undertake to read the poem to you. You do not yet know
enough about life to understand it.

Once upon a time, very long ago, there was a man whose name was Dante.
He had done wrong and had wandered a long way from his home. He does not
tell us how or why. He begins by saying that he had gone to sleep in a
great forest. Suddenly he awoke, and tried to find his way out of it,
first by one path and then another; but all in vain.

Through an opening where the tall trees had not grown quite so thick, he
saw in the distance a great mountain, on the top of which the sun was
shining brightly. “Ah!” thought he to himself, “if I can but reach the
top of that mountain I am sure I can see a long way in every direction.
No woods can grow tall enough to keep me from finding my path then!” So
with fine courage he started toward the mountain, but he had not walked
far when a beautiful, spotted panther stood with glaring eyes in his
pathway. He trembled, for he knew that going forward meant that he would
be destroyed. He turned hastily aside into another path, but he had gone
only a short distance in this direction before he saw a huge lion coming
towards him. In greater haste than before he turned into still another
path. His heart was beating very fast now, and he hastened along without
taking much notice of what lay before him. Suddenly he came upon a lean
and hungry wolf, which looked as if he could devour half a dozen men.
Dante turned and fled back into the dark woods “where the sun was
silent.” He thought, “What is the use of trying to get out of this
terrible forest? There are wild beasts on every side. If I escape one I
am sure to be devoured by another; I might as well give up trying.” He
had now lost all hope.

Just at this moment he saw a man coming towards him. The face of the man
was beaming with smiles as if he had some good news to tell. Dante ran
forward to meet him, crying, “Have mercy on me, whoever you are! See
that

[Illustration: Copyrighted