The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-06-15

Then, again, there are other countries indls
putably barbarous-for instance, turkey anu
Persia-and which yet have no origaDuage'
Moreover, as a matter of direct observation,
the people of Italy and the brigands themselves
are apparently, in manners, in courtesy, aun
S1hivalry superior to soDe 1ee nd n ne
throughout the ages offheir Proudcst clvlilZaton
Rome and Italy bore the brigands much the
same as at this hour. Tney were ss old as
They we're continued in the gangs that followed
Claudius and Catiline, and every other repro
bate OF family in the republic. They we're
erected into public bodies in the petty States of
the middle ages, and dignihed into the factious
and hireing soldiers of those times. Why,
Petrarch himself, when sent by one Of the Popes
ON a diplomatic mission 10 the Court of Naples,
had through 'iear of the brigands, to travel
by sea, though this was scarcely less tenor to
him, from the delicacy Of his nerves. The bri-
gands, then, are no production of barbarism or
OF civilization, but of something independent
alike OF both 1.-THE Italian race.
THIS national popularity is the family spirit
the conception of society in its primitive and
family stage, which recognizes but the ties OF
blood, and the rule of despotism, and is sensi-
bic OF no collateral connection beyond the tribe.
II is, in tact, the esprit de h'tbt, TO which Napo-
leon used to attrb butte all his failures to unite
the Italians And ii they seem at present TO
have largely overcome 1T, it is that the new
kingdom is maintained as it was formed, not by
Italians but by Gauls on both sides OF the Alps.
Beneath this artificial creation, which is borne
"
in the family sphere; and when it tries to work
In II, must take the shape which is known as
bIigandage. The brigands are accordingly the
best OF husbands, sons, or fathers, and carefully
transmit the fruits of their lawless industry TO
their families.
they are also loyal to death to their public
fathers, lay aud spiritual; to Francis II; and
especially the Holy Father. The ssnction of
these authont es is naturally to the brigands the
supreme criterion of all morality, right, and
policy, precisely as the orders of parent are to
his childien. 1t is notoriously so with the primi-
tive Chinese empire where accordingly we find
the brigandage still more chronic than in Italy,
notwithstanding the politeness and civility OF
the people. The brigands, then, are really not
like criminals of other countries, and oughtrather
10 lie punished as prisoners of war. Nor is this
the only contrast perhaps to their advantage.
Thus the brigand breads the priest as the English
culprit breads thep prison. But which is therein the
more spiritual and therefore civilized being?
The poit may be resolved by geographical
measurement. The prison, though at the anti
podes, must still remain upon the earth. The
penal sanction Of the priest aud Pope lies in
space and time somewhere bey ond it, and so sup
poses a longer reach OF mental feeling to receive
its influence. The grand distinction of the
human species from the lower animals, says
Cicero is that the latter never see beyond the
present and the physical while man is capable,
through reason, or ranging back and forth into
the abstract realms of the past and the future.
Now this is just the range that takes the
name OF the social spirit, as contrasted with
view; and which was noted in the French as
producing that quaint solicitude about preserv-
ing the inheritance from the past, augmenting
it by personal glory, and transmitting it to their
So the glory shed by Perarch upon his mystic
history could not well, in such a country, have
been left to lapse or escheat, for want OF pre-
tender in the lineage OF the lady. This pre-
tender appeared accordingly in the Able de
SADIE, who wrote about century ago life of
Petrarch, and took the occasion, or rather
IA fn hn for hic
genitors. He maintained that Petrarchs
love could be no other than Laura de SADIE,
lady who was certainly in existence at the
time and place, and was (as before noted) mar
ried and the mother OF eleven children. But
other Frenchmen, perhaps, envyng the rich in
heritance to the Abbe, soon arose to call in
And, to say truth, number OF the avowed cir
cumstances of this lady do not at all consort
with the descriptive intimations which Petrarch
has % scattered sParngl{Yh {ht Throughout the
sble assertion of her real existence.
The only other serious indication was the fol-
lowing:-In MS. copy of his favorite "VIrgil,"
still shown at the Ambrosian library of Milan,
there is a marginal note supposed to be by Pc
trarch; aid which mentions, among other things
relating to Laura that she was buried in church,
which Is named, at Avignon. By the aid of this
direction, and after long search the tomb was
Able insisted that this belonged to his kins
woman. Nothing was, however, found to solve
the great enigma. There was flag engraven
with coat OF arms, surmounted with a rose;
under it some bones, with maxiliary IN its
integrity; and ciose by them leaden flask
which contained piece OF parchment folded
and S, aled with green wax, and bronze medal
representing female in the attitude of covering
ner bosom, and encircled with the letters M. l..
NJ. j., which were interpreted Madonna Lam
Morte Jacob, or, Here lies Madame Tor Lady,
Laura in death.n The parchment further bore
sonnet, signed "Petrarc@," but which is
Judged completely unworthy of the poet. So
that the whole thing seems, like the rest a fabri
cation.
However such was the avidiy in France for
all assurance, that King Francis l. the generous
patron OF nascent letters, made visit to Avig
non to see the newly discovered tomb; directed
that mausoleum should be erected TO Laura,
and composed himself an epitaph in very tolera-
bic French verse. But the monument was never
raised and even the relics of the old tomb, with
he church that contained them, was swept
away by the Revolution.
What then is the conclusion, from this series
of failures to invest the famous lady with the
flesh and blood of life and history? 1t
must be to regard her, with Voltaire, as
mere myth. But this perspicaclous critic
did not 90 far enough. For Laura was no
voluntary fancy OF the poet, nor, on the other
hand, an ideal reflection of his own sentiments;
one or both of which notions is the meaning of
Voltare. She was myth IN the proper sense
of spontaneous embodiment of attributes eX-
ternal TO and impressed upon the poet. Now
these Wereyin the case of Petrarch, the multila-
rous qualities which had been celebrated in
their ladY-lOves by the French Troubadours;
and which were gathered in the focus of his
delicate and foreign fancy, through the contrast
with his own country, with the unity OF per-
sonation. So that Laura was the ideal woman
OF chivalrous love, as the Virgin was the ideal
woman OF Christian piety and purity.
Thence, accordingly, the other trait above sug
eested by the poems of Petrarch. These poems we
undertake ag thOnDht q