Quote 19
[Virgil]: "Now I would have you know: the other time
that I descended into lower Hell,
this mass of boulders had not yet collapsed;
but if I reason rightly, it was just
before the coming of the One who took
from Dis the highest circle’s splendid spoils
that, on all sides, the steep and filthy valley
had trembled so, I thought the universe
felt love (by which, as some believe, the world
has often been converted into chaos);
and at that moment, here as well as elsewhere,
these ancient boulders toppled, in this way." (Inf. XII, 34-45)
Virgil brings the etymology of the word "compassion" to new heights with his description of Christ’s love literally moving mountains. If "compassion" means "to move/feel with," Christ’s love for his followers during the Harrowing of Hell proves so intense that it moves not only the worthy members of the Old Testament with him to Heaven, but shakes the very earth itself, causing part of the valley of violence (appropriately) to topple.
[Virgil]: … "Are you as foolish as the rest?
Here pity only lives when it is dead;
for who can be more impious than he
who links God’s judgment to passivity?" (Inf. XX, 27-30)
Ironically, the emotion Dante is trying to evoke in readers – pity for the magicians – is rebuked by Virgil. His denunciation of the magicians’ practice as advocating "God’s…passivity" means that the magicians, in prophesying, believe they have power over the future, necessarily rendering God’s will passive. Such an assumption is so mistaken that it should kill the pity of any reasonable person. This is why "pity only lives [here] when it is dead." In other words, there should be no sympathy for these sinners.
Quote 21
[Virgil quoting Beatrice]: "‘For I am Beatrice who send you on;
I come from where I most long to return;
Love prompted me, that Love which makes me speak." (Inf. II, 70-72)
Here, love is like an actual person – given the privilege of capitalized letters and occupying the space of an agent which can urge Beatrice to act in certain ways. This reinforces the concept of love as a moving force, introduced with the concept of God creating the entire universe out of the sheer force of love.