Michael, I can give you Ovid's answer. "victa iacet pietas, et virgo caede madentis ultima caelestum terras Astraea reliquit." -Metamorphoses Book I l.149-150 "Pity lay vanquished, and the maiden Astraea, last of the immortals, abandoned the blood-soaked earth." "Astraea redux" has been proclaimed in the past. Caesar had the vanquished pass under her yoke. No evidence she was really there. Charles ---------- >From: Michael Springate <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: Re: New quiry >Date: Sun, Feb 2, 2003, 10:25 PM > > 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