• The dissertation which Dante here puts into the mouth of Statius maybe found also in a briefer prose form in the Convito , IV 21. It so much excites the enthusiasm of Varchi, that he declares it alone sufficient to prove Dante to have been a physician, philosopher, and theologian of the highest order; and goes on to say:⁠— “I not only confess, but I swear, that as many times as I have read it, which day and night are more than a thousand, my wonder and astonishment have always increased, seeming every time to find therein new beauties and new instruction, and consequently new difficulties.” This subject is also discussed in part by Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica , I Quaest. CXIX , De propagations hominis quantum ad corpus . Milton, in his Latin poem, De Idea Platonica , has touched upon a theme somewhat akin to this, but in a manner to make it seem very remote.