It is from this cause, more than from any other, that his description of Heaven is so far inferior to the Hell or the Purgatory.

With the passions and miseries of the suffering spirits he feels a strong sympathy.

But among the beatified he appears as one who has nothing in common with them,--as one who is incapable of comprehending, not only the degree, but the nature of their enjoyment.
We think that we see him standing amidst those smiling and radiant spirits with that scowl of unutterable misery on his brow, and that curl of bitter disdain on his lips, which all his portraits have preserved, and which might furnish Chantrey with hints for the head of his projected Satan.
There is no poet whose intellectual and moral character are so closely connected.

The great source, as it appears to me, of the power of the Divine Comedy is the strong belief with which the story seems to be told.

In this respect, the only books which approach to its excellence are Gulliver's Travels and Robinson Crusoe.