Virgil (in #Dante's Commedia), the image of so much, is also the image of necessary separation -- or at least willingness towards separation -- from the dearest thing. The consciousness of the sighs which trouble the air of Limbo is the consciousness of our sighs when we are expected to abandon all -- for ever; and what seems to us the terrible phrase of Beatrice when she says to Virgil himself 'I am made such that your misery does not touch me' means a division which has to be endured. Charles Williams, The Figure of Beatrice
August 16, 2026 298 2
