The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-02-23

before him the idea of God; but to the
healthy and brave sorl of Giuseppe
Mazzini, God speaks in his prison at Sa
vonna. and bears him from there to the
capitol, the Ezekiel of Italy
in those places where the divine idea
shines strong and serene. there the cities
spring up aud prosper; there, whore it
wavers and grows dim, there the cit es
decay and are corrupt.
God, oh citizens! was. in the beginn
ing with our republic"
These words, uttered so soon after
the speech of M. Crispi at Naples,
where the distinguished Italian pre-
mier avowed the sentiment, with
God, for Country and King" attract
ed even more attention than that eel
ebrated address. | attracted the
attention of and elected discussion
from many who regarded the speech
of the politician with mis,rust; re-
garding it as but willy scheme to
propitiate the Vatican. But the po-
sition of Carducci gave little grounds
for such suspicion in his case. His
remarks were generally accl edit ed as
the independent result of his own
thinking and as OF still greater i'm
portance than those of Crispi; for he
represented the thinkers while Crispi
spake for the politicians There we're
not wanting some, however, to belittle
the patriot and to assume that he was
but the imitator of the stat. sman. In
reply to these Carducci has added
few words in preface to the pub
lished edition of his speech which
amplify his ideas expressed therein.
He adds:
81 will say few more words; my re-
marks on the divine idea were written
on the tenth of August, and others had
knowledge of them indeed before the
speech of Crispi at Naples was delivered.
And say this, not that | should have
had the least difficulty in avowing it, if
it had so happened that my inspiration
had come from a man of such high in I
telligence and of so great heart. But
| the fact OF our agreeing, without either
suspecting it, in the desire to affirm the
necessity of a return to high ideality;
the fact that great citizen, one of the
men who have contributed so much to
the awakening of Italssshas been able to
arrive at the same thought as poor
man like me. who has been able to do
nothing for Italy; if that has been but
his constant thought, that, repeat ap
pears to me to have some significance.
II think, likewise, that true return
| by Italy to noble ideas, if ever it be pos
| sible, will not be to the advantage of the
| Catholic church as she is today. On
| the other hand l am profoundly con-
vinced that the Italian people are neith-
er atheists nor skeptics, nor without
virtue, nor without faith. There is a
mistake that the Germans committed
long time since, and our easy ignorance
takes that same thing for brevet OF ori-
| ginality and boasts itself therein. Poor
fools! Our great men are named Dante,
Columbus, Michel Angelo. Gallileo. Vico,
Mazziri-and they all. in their thoughts
as in their work, summed up that which
was the most noble, the most elevated,
the most dignified in the life of human
ity. in the history of the world"
To those who are acquainted with
the older radicalism of Italy, it will
occasion small surprise to learn that
these sentiments created a breeze
which rapidly assumed the violence
of storm. Surely such storms shall
not be without good results in clear
ing the intellectual atmosphere of
that Italy whose brave struggle for
unity many of us remember with sym
pathetic admiration.
LEROY. ILL.