Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. II.djvu/55

Rh desire above all things, is, for Tuscany, not a realm and a power like those of the middle ages,—that splendid blossom rather of beauty and prosperity than of moral nobility, not unlike the Cathedral of Florence, a work of art in form and outward covering, but imperfect and inwardly empty;—they want not this, for their ideal is one far more inward, far higher; but I will, once for all, let one of the noblest sons and lovers of Italy express this. Thus says Cesare Balbo, in his Speranze d'Italia, 11th chapter:

“That in which Italy is deficient, if not wholly, yet certainly comparatively so, is a stern, strong, effectual virtue. I say that it is deficient in this, in comparison with other Christian nations, our cotemporaries,—with England, although she is not Catholic; with France, although she proceeds from the revolution; with Germany, even, who is our ruler, which is the great misfortune. And these nations, who are heretics in dogmas, or on some moral points, do they not possess the whole treasure of Christian morality which is the foundation of every virtue, every advance in morality and culture. As far as regards revolutions, I do not call that an immoral people who enter into them, if they, at the same time, know how again to come out of them. And I appeal to all those Italians who know these three foreign nations by having lived amongst them as exiles, long and quietly in their capitals, and in families, in the provinces. Do they not, spite of their love for their country, tell us, and tell us with a sacred envy, of the morality and the unity in these families; of the industry, the strength, the earnestness in morals and in society! And what,