Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/470

486 those which lead the way in the highest moral development of all nobler nations, and which constitute the conditions of it; the equality of every individual in the eye of the law; the right of all to be trained to a free, self-conscious existence; the right of all to become co-operative in the constitution, and in the laws by which they are to be governed.

But beyond, or more properly speaking before, this consciousness of the claims of all, stands the duty of all to carry out the right, the just, and the good, on the life of the state, to be co-workers in the construction of the community—to build thereof a city of God, a Holy Priesthood, as the Apostle says: “in one word a kingdom of God upon earth.” Thus have I understood the striving towards liberty in Italy at this moment. Is there any higher? The Pyramids, the Acropolis, the Pantheon, and the states which produced these by the labor of slaves do they not sink down to mere pieces of art in comparison with this highest work of art of a free community, in which the smallest, as well as the greatest, is called to the same freedom, goodness and happiness; where every one lives for all, and all for every one!

I do not desire from thee, my R——, that thou shouldst take part in each cry for freedom, in each national movement, which is not sustained by the knowledge of the true purport of freedom. But when we see a people seeking freedom, and the right to establish itself upon the basis of the purest and highest human interests, then it is clear to me, that this people is prepared to pass from the period of its