• Blanco White, “Night”:⁠— “Mysterious Night! when our first parent knew Thee, from report divine, and heard thy name, Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, This glorious canopy of light and blue? Yet neath a curtain of translucent dew, Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, Hesperus with the host of heaven came, And lo! creation widened in man’s view. Who could have thought such darkness lay concealed Within thy beams, O Sun! or who could find, Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect stood revealed, That to such countless orbs thou mad’st us blind? Why do we, then, shun death with anxious strife? If Light can thus deceive, wherefore not Life?” ↩
• King David, who carried the Ark of the Covenant from Kirjathjearim to the house of Obed-Edom, and thence to Jerusalem. See 2 Samuel 6. ↩
• In so far as the Psalms were the result of his own free will, and not of divine inspiration. As in Canto VI 118:⁠— “But in commensuration of our wages With our desert is portion of our joy, Because we see them neither less nor greater.” ↩
• The Emperor Trajan, whose soul was saved by the prayers of St. Gregory. For the story of the poor widow, see Purgatorio X 73 , and note 710 . ↩
• King Hezekiah. ↩