The Divine Comedy of Dante Author:Dante Alighieri Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: INFERNO CANTO I Dante, lost and bewildered, finds himself in a dark and savage forest. Escaping from this, he makes his way to the foot of a hill which he ... more »endeavors to ascend. He is met by three beasts, a panther, a lion, and a she-wolf, which drive him back to the foot of the ascent. Here he meets the shade of Vergil, to whom he appeals for aid. Vergil proposes to deliver him by conducting him through Hell and Purgatory, and afterward committing him to the charge of Beatrice, who will be his guide through Heaven. Dante departs in his company. Midway upon the journey of our life, I found myself within a forest dark, For the right road was lost. Ah! what it was— That savage wood, bristling and obstinate, Which in the very thought renews the fear,— How hard a thing it is to tell! so great The bitterness, that death is little more. But to discourse about the good I found Therein, I will recount the other things 10 Which there I marked. How first I entered there I cannot well relate, I was so full Of drowsiness, that moment when I left The path of truth: but when I to the foot Had come of an ascent, where to an end That valley came which had my heart harassed With fear, I upward looked, and mantled now Beheld its shoulders with that planet's rays Which rightly guides men upon every path. My fear was then a little pacified, 20 Which, through the night passed m such piteous wise, In my heart's lake had lingered; and as he Who from the deep comes panting forth to shore, And turns him to the dangerous sea, and stares, E'en so my mind, still speeding onward, turned Again, to view the pass which never one Did living leave. When I a little rest Had given to my wearied frame, again Along the solitary slope I took My way, in such wise that the firmer foot 30 Ever the lower was...« less