Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-11-06
THE B1RrHPLAGE OF LEO
PARDi.

The poets father was Count Monal-
do Leopard, who had written little
books Of a religious and political char
acter; the religion very bigoted. the
politics very re%actionary. His library
was the largest anywhere in that re-
gion, but he seems not to have learned
wisdom in it, and, though otherwise q
blameless man, he used his son, who
grew to manhood differing from him
in all his opinions, with - rigor that
was sdarcelY'iess than cruel He WAS
bitterly opposed towhat was called
progress, to religion and civil liberty;
he was devoted to what was called
order. which merely meant the exist
ing order of things, the divinely ap-
pointed prince, the infallible priest.
He had a.medieval taste, and he made
his palace at Recanati> IS much like a
feudal castle as he could, with all sort
of baronial bricabrae. An armed vas
sal at his gate vas out Of the question,
but at the door of his own chamber
stood an effigy in rusty armor, bearing
a tarnished halBerd. He ahhorred the
fashions of our century, and wore those
of an earlier epoch; his wife, who shar-
ed his prejudices and opinions, fantas-
tically a%ppareled herself to look like
the portrait of some gentlewoman of
as remote a date. Halls hung in dam
ask, vast mirrors in caryen frames.
and stately furniture of antique form
attested throughout the palace s.the
splendor of a race which, il It's fortunes
had somewhat declined, still knew how
to maintain its ancient 'decorum." =
In this home passed the youth and
manhood of a poet WING no sooner began
to think for himself than he began Ito
think the things most discordant to his
father's principles and ideas. He be-
4ieyed in neither tho religion nor the
politics of his race; he cherished with
the desire of literary achievement that
vague faith in humanity, in freedom,
in the future. against which the Count
Monaldo had Sc sternly set his face; he
chafed under the restraints of his faith
er's authority, and longed for some esr
cape into the world. The Italians
something's write of Leopardi's uphap=
piness, with passionate condemnation
of his father; but neither was Count
Monaldo's part an enviable ono, and it
was certainly not at this period that
he had all the wrong in his differences
with his son. Nevertheless, it is pa
thetio to read how the heartsick, frail,
ambitious boy, when he found some ar
ticle in a newspaper that greatly pleas
ed him, would write to the author and
ask his friendship. When these jour
n~alists, who were possibly not the
uiooet o,,hlioisfo If thar finoa 90 So,
responded to the young scholars adj
vances as to give him their personal
acquaintance az we'll as their friend
ship, the old count received them with
a courteous tolerance, which had no
kindness in it for their progressive
ideas. He lived in dread of his sons
becoming involved in some of the
many plots then Matching against
order and religion, and he depressed
with all his strength Leopardi's v
lutionary tendencies, which must al
ways have been mere matters of senti-
ment. and not deserving of great rig
or.
He seems not so much to have loved
Italy as to have hated Recanati. 1t is
a small village high up in the Apen-
mines, between Loreto and Macerata,
and is chiefly accessible in ox-carts.
Small towns everywhere are dull, and
perhaps are not more deadly SO in
Italy than they are elsewhere, but
there they have q peculiar obscure,
narrow life indoors. Outdoors there
is a little lounging around the cafe. o
little stir on holidays among the lower