Charles:

Did EP believe in "the eternal laws of justice", and what might that phrase
mean? Would anybody who believes in the "eternal laws of justice" be considered
as a mystic (given the lack of justice here on earth)?

Michael

charles moyer wrote:

>
>     In Pound's "Spirit of Romance" concerning Dante's "Commedia" he writes;
>
> "Thus the 'Commedia' is, in the literal sense, a description of Dante's
> vision of a journey through the realms inhabited by the spirits of men after
> death; in a further sense it is the journey of Dante's intelligence through
> the states of mind wherein dwell all sorts and conditions of men before
> death; beyond this, Dante or Dante's intelligence may come to mean
> 'Everyman' or 'Mankind,' whereat his journey becomes a symbol of mankind's
> struggle upward out of ignorance into the clear light of philosophy. In the
> second sense I give here, the journey is Dante's own mental and spiritual
> development. In a fourth sense, the 'Commedia' is an expression of the laws
> of eternal justice; 'il contrapasso,' the counterpass, as Bertran calls
> it(5) or the law of Karma, if we are to use an Oriental term."
>    Pound's footnote (5) reads, "Inferno, XXIV."  I have looked at my copy of
> Dante , The Carlyle-Wicksteed translation, and I wish someone could tell me
> what in Book XXIV can be identified as "il contrapasso" or "the
> counterpass". In fact, what IS a counterpass?
>     I would appreciate any explanation.
>     Thank you in advancia,
>
> Charles