Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/441

Rh heart, the most fervent love of the native-land; breathed from every page.

The work, two thick volumes, was interdicted in every state of Italy, excepting Piedmont. Carlo Alberto received it with joy, and allowed its free circulation in his realm. Thence it spread—spite of the interdict—to all parts of Italy. The enthusiasm which it awakened, exceeds all description. Now, for the first time, the young, upward-striving Italy, perceived what she wished for, what she ought to be, and might be. For she believed fully and firmly that she could realize this beautiful vision of the future. L'Italia fara da se! (Italy will help herself!) became the favorite expression of the young Italy.

“Christian nations may sink, but they cannot die!” had Gioberti said. Young Italy felt herself full of vigorous, new-awakened life. She hailed Gioberti as her spiritual awakener, and when he, recalled from exile, set foot on his native soil, he was carried as in triumph from city to city, from province to province, by a unanimous, enthusiastic people. The old Roman soil had never seen a nobler triumph. It was that of the spirit and the word.

The spirit and the word continue now, in Italy herself, his work. Innumerable writings, large and small, presented variations of Gioberti's theme. Amongst these, the most important and influential, was the work of Count Cesare Balbo, ’Speranze d'Italia. This thick volume, first printed at Paris, was afterwards reprinted at Florence, Turin, and Naples, and in a few years passed through five editions. Cesare Balbo, also a Piedmontese, of an old and aristocratic family, the