A Passage From Dante

Robert Clancy

[Reprinted from Land and Freedom, November-December 1939. The passages quoted are from the literal translation of the Purgatorio from the Italian, by Thomas Okey]

THE Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri abounds in profound discourses and words of wisdom. There is a splendid example of this in Cantos, XIV and XV of the Purgatorio. In Canto XIV we find Guido del Duca, a fellow-countryman of Dante, atoning for his vice of envy. Guido exclaims:

"Oh human folk, why set thy heart there where exclusion of partnership is necessary?"

In the next Canto, Dante asks his guide and master, Virgil, what Guido meant by that remark. Virgil replies:

"He knoweth the hurt of his greatest defect, and therefore let none marvel if he reprove it, that it be less mourned for.

"Forasmuch as your desires are centered where the portion is lessened by partnership, envy moves the bellows to your sighs.

"But if the love of the highest sphere wrested your desire upward, that fear would not be at your heart; for by so many more there are who say 'ours,' so much the more of good doth each possess, and the more of love burnest in that cloister."

Dante is still puzzled:

"How can it be that a good, when shared, shall make the greater number of possessors richer in it than if possessed by a few?"

Virgil again replies:

"Because thou dost again fix thy mind merely on things of earth, thou drawest darkness from true light.

"That infinite and ineffable good, that is on high speedeth so to love as a ray of light comes to a bright body.

"As much of ardour as it finds, so much of itself doth it give, so that how far soever love extends, eternal goodness giveth increase upon it.

"And the more people on high who comprehend each other, the more there are to love well, and the more love is there, and like a mirror one giveth back to the other."

In that passage is a truth that may be applied to affairs on earth as well as in heaven. Let us see how it applies, not merely to "things of earth," but 0/50 to them. Instead of "drawing darkness from true light," let us bring light to the darkness.

Let us not seek to share, says Dante (or Virgil), those things of which, when shared, each sharer gets less. Let us rather raise our desire to the point where that which is shared increases the more it is shared and the more sharers there are. In order for there to be increase, the sharers, by their very presence must increase the thing to be shared.

Now, the heavenly attribute of love, says Dante, attracts goodness to it. The sociological equivalent of love would be the value that people place upon one another's services. What is the goodness that results from, or is attracted to, this value?

Henry George teaches us that as society grows and flourishes, two values arise an individual value and a social value. The individual value attaches to things produced by individuals wealth. Every individual has a right to the wealth which he as an individual produces, and it ought to remain in his possession, and not be shared, as the Socialists would have. There exclusion of partnership is necessary.

But the other value the social value is a value which no individual by himself can create, but which exists in proportion to the existence of society. This value attaches itself to the land upon which the society is existent, and is indeed the rent of land. It always appears as society appears, and increases to the extent that people place a value upon one another's services.

Here, then, is the economic counterpart of the good that is attracted to love.

Let us paraphrase the passage from Dante in economic terms:

That quality of rent speedeth so to society as a ray of light comes to a bright body. As much of social activities as it finds so much of itself doth it give, so that how far soever society extends, rent giveth increase upon it, and the more people there are who exchange with one another, the more closely knit is society and like a mirror one giveth back to the other.

Here is a new or rather an old argument in favor of the socialization of rent. Rent is the good that will increase the more it is shared!

Let us say in passing that Dante's norm of what should and should not be shared may also be applied to the question of dividing the land among the people. The more land were subdivided and parcelled out to individuals, the less would be the share of each. Henry George fully points out the inadequacy of such a measure.

The rent of land is the only thing that stands the test of increasing good the more it is shared. If this truth were more widely realized there would be a great many fears that "would not be at our hearts!"