Page:The National Idea in Italian Literature.djvu/37



It was in the middle of the epoch of Italy's political martyrdom that followed the Congress of Vienna—the epoch at the beginning of which we hear Leopardi's lyrical cry of despair—that the luminous vision of the Third Italy formed itself in the mind of the man who was at once the apostle of the unity of Italy and the prophet of universal brotherhood among the nations: Giuseppe Mazzini.

In 1831, Mazzini opened his Giovine Italia propaganda, declaring that Italy must be founded on the three inseparable bases of Unity, Liberty, and Independence, associating the future of Italy with international social regeneration, giving a mystical colouring to the national movement as the cause of God and the People. The note of self-sacrifice, in the cause of a nation and thence for that of all humanity, was Mazzini's great gift to the Italian spirit of the Risorgimento. "Man has no rights from nature, save this alone: to emancipate himself from every obstacle that impedes the free fulfilment of his own duties." Life is a mission. Virtue is sacrifice. "Where shall we go, O Lord? Go to die, ye who have to die; go to suffer, ye who have to suffer" (2). In this spirit he sent men 25