Note 72 — II DANTE AND POLITICAL LIBERTY

At the last moment before going to press, it is cheering to find this contention (treated more fully by the present writer in an article in the Anglo-Italian Review, Dec., 1918), corroborated by Prof. A. J. Grant, who, in an article on “Dante’s conception of History” (History, Vol. VI, Jan., 1922), speaks thus of the Poet’s praise of the Empire: “It is a demand for a world-order resting on laws that are sensible and generally known, and which control the lives of states as well as of individuals. It is little exaggeration to say that it is a plea for a League of Nations; and the De Monarchia is not a bad handbook for those who are called upon to speak for the League” (p. 229).