• The first doubt in Dante’s mind was in regard to the expression in Canto X 96, “Where well one fattens if he strayeth not,” which was explained by Thomas Aquinas in Canto XI . The second, which he now prepares to thresh out, is in Canto X 114, “To see so much there never rose a second,” referring to Solomon, as being peerless in knowledge. ↩
• Adam. ↩
• Christ. ↩
• Solomon. ↩
• All things are but the thought of God, and by him created in love. ↩
• The living Light, the Word, proceeding from the Father, is not separated from Him nor from his Love, the Holy Spirit. ↩
• Its rays are centred in the nine choirs of Angels, ruling the nine heavens, here called subsistences, according to the definition of Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica , I Quaest. XXIX 2:⁠— “What exists by itself, and not in anything else, is called subsistence.” ↩
• From those nine heavens it descends to the elements, the lowest potencies, till it produces only imperfect and perishable results, or mere contingencies. ↩