56

THE DORE GALLERY.

These elders are followed by four animals, each crowned with green leaves, and each
having six plumed wings, the plumage full of living eyes. Dante refers the reader who
would know more of the appearance of these mysterious beasts to the account given by
Ezekiel (i. 5, 6) of the four living creatures he saw in his vision, which had the likeness
of a man, though each one had four faces and four wings. The poet adds, however,
that he agrees with John (Revelation iv. 8) as to the number of the wings. All this
allegory is alive with meaning; but, with regard to several points, the commentators are
not agreed as to the interpretation to be put on Dante’s imaginings. It seems probable
that by the lady is meant the affectionate devotion which Catholics bear towards their
Church. In the last canto of the “ Purgatorio ” the lady is called Matilda ; and Matilda
was the name of a countess who endowed the See of Rome with the Patrimony of
St. Peter, and died in 1115. The elders are those alluded to in Revelation iv. 4;
and the winged beasts are the evangelists. The difference in the number of wings is
accounted for by supposing that Ezekiel saw only four “ because ”—to adopt the explana-
tion of Lombardi, one of the commentators on Dante—“ his prophecy does not extend
beyond the fourth age; whereas Dante, beholding them in the sixth age, saw them with
six wings, as did St. John.” The vision as related by the poet is one of the most
beautiful incidents of the “ Purgatorio,” and it is partly realised in the engraving.

PLATE XLIX.
THE FALLS OF NIAGARA.
In the Epilogue to “ A tala,” Chateaubriand gives a description of the Falls of Niagara,
which were not so well known to Europeans in his days as they have since become, owing
to the accounts of many travellers. The perpendicular height of the falls is one hundred
and forty-four feet. The cataract is divided into two branches, and the shape is that of a
horse-shoe. Between the two falls is an island, hollow underneath, and hanging with all
its trees over the watery chaos. “ The mass of the river, which rushes towards the north,
assumes the form of a vast cylinder, unrolling itself into a field of snow, and shining
with every colour in the sun ; that which flows to the east descends into a fearful shade,
and might be taken for a column of the water of the Deluge. A thousand rainbows bend
and cross each other over the abyss. Striking against the shaken rock, the water rebounds
in whirlwinds of froth, that rise above the forest like smoke from a vast burning mass.
Pine-trees, walnut-trees, and rocks worn into fantastic forms, ornament the scene. Eagles,
carried along by the current of air, are whirled down to the bottom of the gulf; and
carcajous, hanging by their flexible tails to the ends of the fallen branches, wait to seize in
the abyss the crushed bodies of bears and elks.” Such is the scene which the illustration
so forcibly brings before our eyes.