Here we see him mature with strength of character in every feature and a
seriousness of mien which shows a man with whom one might not take
liberties. It was of Dante in mature life that Boccaccio wrote: "Our
poet was of moderate height and after reaching maturity was accustomed
to walk somewhat bowed with a slow and gentle pace, clad always in such
sober dress as befitted his ripe years. His face was long, his nose
aquiline and his eyes rather large than small. His jaws were large and
his lower lip protruded beyond the upper. His complexion was dark and
his expression very melancholy and thoughtful. His manners, whether in
public or at home, were wonderful, composed and restrained, and in all
ways he was more courteous and civil than any one else."

Bruni, on the other hand, who wrote a century later describes Dante as
if he had in mind Giotto's fresco of the poet. This is Bruni's
word-picture: "He was a man of great refinement, of medium height and
a pleasant but deeply serious face. It was remarkable that although he
studied incessantly, none would have supposed from his happy manner and
youthful way of speaking that he had studied at all." However well these
pictures may visualize the poet for us, I cannot help thinking that
Dante himself, after the manner of great artists who paint their own
pictures, gives us a far better portrait of himself. What we know of him
from others is as nothing compared to the revelation he has made of
himself in his writings. For, as Dr. Zahm, in his Great Inspirers, has
said: "Dante, although the most concealing of men was, paradoxical as it
may seem, the most self-revealing." The indirect recorder of his own
life, he discloses to us an intimate view of his spiritual struggles, of
the motives which actuated him, of the passions he experienced, not to
speak of the judgments he formed upon all great questions. "So true is
this that if it were possible to meet him, we should feel that he was