Page:The National Idea in Italian Literature.djvu/18

 "di quell'umile Italia fia salute." The position of the Emperor with respect to Italy is clearly stated in the letter to the princes and peoples: "Awake, then, all ye dwellers in Italy, and arise before your king, ye who are reserved not only for his empire, but, as free men, for his rule." Like the other nations, Italy is included in the Empire, but she has the special privilege of having the Emperor himself as her king. There are no indications that Dante anticipated a fusion of the different states; but the realisation of such an Italian kingdom would obviously imply a certain form of political unity and the end of the temporal power of the Church. In any case, the Emperor elect must drizzare Italia, he must inforcar li suoi arcioni, before he can fulfil his imperial mission of universal peace and liberation.

The nationality of this imperial deliverer from strife and anarchy was, in scholastic phrase, accidental; for Rome alone could confirm and give its sanctity to the choice of the Electors, and the tradition that he represented would be Latin. And, further, when we examine the De Monarchia, we find that Dante's "imperialism" is merely the outward form of his conception, [sic] He looks to the goal of civilisation, the function proper to humanity as a whole; and he finds it to be the actualising, the bringing into play, of all the potentialities of the human mind for thought and for action. For this to be realised, the first requisite is universal peace, and the second is freedom, "the greatest gift bestowed by God on human nature." In its ultimate analysis, 6