Quote 25
[Virgil]: "Here it is morning when it’s evening there;
and he whose hair has served us as a ladder
is still fixed, even as he was before." (Inf. XXXIV, 118-120)
According to translator Mandelbaum’s notes, the journey through Hell takes a full day. When the sun sets in the northern hemisphere (as the pilgrims cross the earth’s axis), it rises in the southern hemisphere, where Dante and Virgil emerge. So just as Dante begins his journey at dawn, so he ends it in the light of another dawn on the other side of the world. In a dreamlike manner, it seems as though no time at all has passed.
[Virgil quoting Beatrice]: "‘O spirit of the courteous Mantuan,
whose fame is still a presence in the world
and shall endure as long as the world lasts,
my friend who has not been the friend of fortune,
is hindered in his path along that lonely
hillside; he has been turned aside by terror.
From all that I have heard of him in Heaven,
he is, I fear, already so astray
that I have come to help him much too late.
Go now; with your persuasive word, with all
that is required to see that he escapes,
bring help to him, that I may be consoled.’" (Inf. II, 58-69)
Virgil’s renown as the consummate poet gifted with the "persuasive word" makes him the prime candidate to appeal to for Dante’s sake. It is to Virgil’s "courteous spirit," which has endured countless ages with an unblemished name, that Beatrice entrusts her beloved Dante, not to any real knowledge or experience with the poet.
Quote 27
[Virgil]: "Those who are here can place no hope in death,
and their blind life is so abject that they
are envious of every other fate.
The world will let no fame of theirs endure;
both justice and compassion must disdain them;
let us not talk of them, but look and pass." (Inf. III, 46-51)
Because cowardice has kept the neutrals from making any indelible mark on the world, they have no claim to fame. Thus, "the world will let no fame of theirs endure," and even Virgil has no patience to spend time identifying any of these sinners. They simply have no reputation to speak of.