The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1908-09-27


oountry. Throughout nearly a. bic trass
dies and his prose writings the leading
Idea by Nhioh be vtS animated. that o.
Italian independence. stood plainly out,
He never tired In his denunciation Of
tyranny. In his invectve against OPP
precision. He spoke q nav voice. and
stirred q new spirit In his hearers. Tn
voios once heard. the spirit once born,
the new idea grew rapidly. Within o feE
ysare sitter Alacri's death eighteen edi-
tons Of his works had passed through
the press. Two great theatres. q at
Milan and n at Bologna. were built
by men eager to present his tragedies.
The influence Of his writings was tre-
mendous; the minds Of Italians from
Piedmont TO Sicily were wrought 10 Q
higher pitch than thsy had been for
many centuries. MIR. holland directs
attention to tho fact that even Giuseppe
AInaud. who spoke u~nfavorably OF the
poets tragedies from an artistic point
Of view. nevertheless acknowledged q
Alhen will stIl remain the man who
aroused his country from its d~ishonorable
slumber and inspired It's heart with
intolerance Of ssrvile conditions and With
regard for Its dignity. Up to this time
We had bleeted and he reared To
u somewhat similar effect wrote Massimo
d'Azegli8: "The first and greatest merit
Of Alferi, to my thinking, was that he
discovered Italy. 80 to speak. a. Columbus
discovered America. and initiated the idea
Of Italy az a nation. I place this merit
far beyond that Of his verses and his
tragedies Mr.. Holland sums. up the
truth in a short sentence when he says
that Alferi reminded Italians that they
had q native voice.
It may ut first glance surprise the
reader to find Manzoni included among
the builders Of Italy. Nobody OF course
disputes his remarkable literary merit.
The bulk Of his work indeed ID not large.
but each expression Of IL was masterful
In les way. the Sacred Hymns being true
poetry. fraught with deep religious senti-
ment; the sOde on Napoleon being con-
sidered the finest ode In all Italian verse;
tho dramas pulsing with life and feeling;
the one novel, Il Promessi Sposi.' unsur-
passed. These literary values Of his
achievements would not, however. them-
selves account for his influence on his time.
Mr.. Holland points out that he was q moral
and political force. demonstrating to the
men Of his day that nations q hope for
liberty and peace only when the citizens
respect the law and virtue. "A gener-
alton which had lived through the French
Revolution and the N~apoleonio ara needed
some one to lead them back to moral
sanity. and this was the greatest Of Man
Eoni's works.
In our authors opinion the charge
sometimes brought against Manzoni that
he was the poet OF resignation IL disproved
by his dramas and his novel. The mar
tiel lyrics OF the plays burn with q spirit
evidently fired by the contemporary sub
lection Of Italy to Austria and France.
He was q patriot rs we'll as an artist and
read his time with no unskilful eye.
Vincenzo Giobert was educated and
ordained as a priest. but through his
devotion to the cause Of Italian emanci-
patton he incurred the enmity Of tho
clerical party and at the age Of 50 was
banished from Piedmont. He betook
himself to Brussels. where he earned
q livelihood as a teacher Of philosophy.
His stay in that city. which lasted from
1884 to 1915, Witnessed the production
OF his most notable books. all deeply
earnest. and each arousins intense in
terest and emotion in Italy. II was. how
ever. his essay .On the Moral and Civil
Primary Of the Italians" which gave
the e1iled author his place rs q great
factor in the struggle for Italian indie
pendenos. The influence Of the essay
was felt from Turin to Naples. The
effect OF the book said Minghett. the
statesman Of g later decade. seemed to
some an e~xtravagance; to others a v
laton. The truth IL that while many Of
It's ideas were peculiar to the author and
partook OF his character. his studies and
his profession. the substance OF IL re-
sponded to q sentiment still underlined, but
which had been slowly developing in the
minds Of Italians The idea Of nation
atty had In the previous years spread
far and wide through many channels,
open and secret. and the desire Of pos
sessing a great and free country had
mastered the minds Of the majority Of
the younger men. Gioberti returned to
Piedmont after the revolution Of ls4s,
and for a time took a conspicuous part
in the political affairs Of the kingdom Of
Sardinia. In 1851 he published a remark
able work, the .Rinnovamento Civile
d'Italia,' In which he pointed out the
mistakes made by Italians in 1e4s- 10.
acknowledged his own lack Of political
sagacty and designated Piedmont az
the leader Of a great national movement
which should end In q regenerated Italy
with its capital in q lay and oonsttu-
tonal Rome. We need not say that the
prediction has been exactly fulfilled.
Mr.. Holland would describe Gioberti's
work as chiefly important in the sense Of
being q stimulus to Italian patriotic
thought, a stretching out Of theories and
principles In preparation for q true real
ization Of national needs and hopes. That
the philosophy. in 90 far as It was po-
litical, OF his .Primato' failed to prove
sound when he himself attempted to put
1t In practice at Turin did nor affect his
influence over his wi generation. Al
though Gioberti's enlightenment came
late. the author Of this book recognizes
that sfor all its ~failaoies his 'Primato'
woke intellectual Italy from a sleep which
had lasted centuries and made It ponder
the problem Of it's regeneration