Page:Margaret Fuller by Howe, Julia Ward, Ed. (1883).djvu/194

Rh Pure and devout as are the sentiments uttered in this letter, the views which accompany them have been shown, by subsequent events, to be only partially just, only partially realizable. The unification of Italy may to-day be called “a work of God”; but had it been accomplished on the theocratic basis imagined by Mazzini, it could not have led either Europe or Italy itself to the point now reached through manifold endeavour and experience. Spirits may be summoned from the upper air as well as from the "vasty deep," but they will not come until the time is ripe for their work. And yet are prayer and prophecy of this sort sacred and indispensable functions in the priesthood of ideas,

On March 29, 1818, Margaret is able to praise once more the beauty of the scene around her:—

Now the Italian heavens wear again their deep blue. The sun is glorious, the melancholy lustres arc stealing again over the Campagna, and hundreds of larks sing unwearied above its ruins. Nature seems in sympathy with the great events that are transpiring."

What were these events which, Margaret says, stunned her by the rapidity and grandeur of their march?

The face of Italy was changed indeed. Sicilly was in revolt, Naples in revolution. Milan, Venice, Modena, and Parma were driving out their tyrants; and in Rome, men and women were weeping and dancing for joy at the news. Abroad, Louis Philippe had lost his throne, and Metternich his power. Margaret say the Austrian arms dragged through the streets, and burned in the Piazza del Popolo. “The Italians embraced cne another, and cried, ''Miracolo! Providenza!'' The Tribune Ciccruacchio fed the flame with fagots. Adam Mickiewicz, the great poet of Poland, long exiled from his country, looked on."