Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker volume 6.djvu/125

112 Her tree of freedom grew In a narrow field of time and briefly bore its age-outlasting fruit of science, literature, and art. Now the tree is dead; its fragments are only curious Athenian stone. The Grecian colonies in the East, Ætolian, Dorian, Ionian—how fair they flourished in the despotic waste of Asia! how soon those liberal blossoms died! Even her colonies in the advancing West had no long independent life. Cyrene, Syracusa, Agrigentum, Crotona, Massilia Saguntum,—how soon they died!—flowers which the savage winter swiftly nipped.

The Roman Commonwealth could not endure five hundred years. Her theocratic Tarquin the Proud must be succeeded by a more despotic dictator, with the style of democrat; and Rome, abhorring still the name of king, see all her liberties laid low. The red sea of despotism opened to let pass one noble troop—the elder Brutus at the head, the younger bringing up the rear-then closed again and swallowed up that worse than Ægyptian host, clamouring only for "bread and games!"

The republics of Italy in the Middle Ages were no more fortunate. The half-Grecian Commonwealths, Naples, Amalphi, Gaëta,—what promise they once held forth; and w:hat a warning fate! They were only born to die. A similar destiny befell the towns of more northern Italy, where freedom later found a home,—Milan, Padua, Genoa, Verona, Venice, Bologna, Florence, Pisa. Nay, in the midnight of the dark ages, seven hundred years ago, in the very city of the Popes and Caesars, in the centre of that red Roman sea of despotism, there was a momentary spot of dry free land; and Amaldo da Brescia eloquently spoke of "Roman Liberty." The "Roman Republic" and "Roman Senate" became once more familiar words. Italian liberty, Lombard republics,—how soon they all went down! No city—not even Florence—kept the people's freedom safe three hundred years. Silently the wealthy nobles and despotic priests sapped the walls. Party spirit blinded the else clear eyes: "the State may perish; let the faction thrive." The republicans sought to crush the adjacent feeble States. They forgot justice, the higher law of God: unworthy of liberty, they fell and died! Let the tyrant swallow up the Italian towns; they were unfit for freedom. "A generous disdain of one man's will is to