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ITALIAN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY*
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MARTIAL.*
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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necessitated to withdraw that sum from the school , and eventually to leave it to support itself . ,. , c , Such , then , is the present position of an exceedingly useful institution . It must either stand or fall presently . By the withdrawal of the large and munificent grant of £ p 00 , if means be not liad of replacing it , the school must ultimately break up . Now the question whwk . at this crisis the Committee of the Female School of Art and Design propounds is , whether the school is of sufficient value to deserve an effort to maintain its existence ? Tins question , we think , is already settled by the report on the progress and success of the school from the beginning . It has borne good fruits . It has educated and found employ inent fora great number of young women , who * without sucli a . place and the opportunities which it affordswouldit is probable , have lived in . indigence and misery .
, , When the piety and benevolence of the age are directed towards the consideration of what shall be done for the social redemption of thousands ( with whom , however , let it be understood , we do not hi the remotest sense , connect the students associated with the institution whose wants we are advocating ) , it is a fitting time to brin ^ forward far public sympathy and support the " Female School of A 7-t and Dosign . " The situation of the school in Grower Street is convenient for the North and West of London , as well as for the City , ami this forms a principal reason why . it should be maintained third . The Committee propose , in order to preserve the school from closing , that suitable premises for it be purchased in its
present neighbourhood . To purchase such premises , it is estimated that at least £ 2000 will be required . If this sum could bo raised to cany out the intentions of the committee , . there is every reason to believe that by careful management of its expenses , the institution . ' would be ¦ placed upon a permanent basis , n consummation devoutly , to be wished . - "We-sincerely hope that the necessitous condition of the . school being known , the appeal now made on behalf of it will be liberally responded to ; so that , as everybody must desire , it . may be placed on a firms self-supporting . ' fbotiiijf , capable of carrying out to the utmost the kind and g-eneroiis object for which it was instituted .
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rF ^ HE political regeneration of Jtaly has been -accornp , or JL rather it would-be in-ove correct' . to' sny that it has been prece-ledj by a philosophical regeneration . This was the case , likewise , in Germany in the " earlier part of the century . Its great philosophers , especially Fichte , had to lift up their mighty and miraculous voice before grand deeds could be done . They who despise . p hilosophy , despise not merely the deepest human thought , the richest human phantasy : they despise likewise the most infallibje herald of political revolution .. ' A spiritualist philosophy predicts , prepares political changes that sire blissful , a materialist philosophy political changes that are baneful . M . P ^ biit , therefore , in this excellent volume , has" done good service in reference not : merely .. to . . Italy's philosophical progress , but nlso to its political disenthbtlnitSiit . He lifts devoted several years to studying the writings of Italy ' s three thief modern philosophers—Antonio Rosmini , Serbati Terenzio 3 I ; imiani and Vincenzo Oioberti . The first'of those wus born in
171 » 7 , ami died in JLS 55 ; the second was bora in 1709 , and is still alive ; the third , and the most celebrated , wsis born in 18 O 1 , and died in 1852 ; so that 'they were , in the strictest sense , contemporaries—belonging :, furt hermore , to our own generation . _ They had th ' is in cominou besides- —that they all had ii part in political a ^ airs ; not much to their own satisfaction , in > r the satisfaction of anybody else . However , we may do them ¦ infinite injustice by judging them in an English fashiun , and by an ¦ English atandurd . We are more si ml more c 6 nvinced the more we read , meditate , learn , that only the natives of a country can understand its politics , r .-nn interpret its spiritual movements . . Foreigners—uven the aciitest and the justest—en-i only guess , and in the ' majority ofcsiscs thev must guus . s wrong . With all our researches , do we really
know anything 1 of antiquity , of that life which flung itself forth unconstrained into tho generous sunlight ? What blunders Freuchnicrwiko aboub England ! What blunders EiigluHhuioii make about everything and ovi'rybotly ! If an honoat , intelOgoi . it , patriotic native tells us something about his country , wo are in the niain disposed to credit what he says , even if prejudice somewhat bias him . But what can the cleverest foreign , correspondent toll us which is not likely to mislead ? In . the ' conduct of liosmini , Mumiaui , Gioberti , there may roally have boon wisdom , where wo see only folly ; that mny havo -been a sublime ardor which wo pronounce a which condemn bund
depend on the good intentions of a Pope , as Pi'is Ninth has sufficiently proved , to realize that which is impossible . Authority , in effect , ' cannot transform itself into liberty without destroying itself . Every reform is for authority an abdication . Rome converted into a constitutional city , . Rome obedient to the representative system , Rome with an Upper Chamber and a Lower Chamber , Roine trusting- to itself , directing itself ; Rome , finally , after a minority of two thousand years , receiving from the hands of the Pope the virile robe , is one of those Utopias which do not bear an instant ' s examination . If such a-Rome were possible , Rome would assuredly no longer be the Rome which we know , the abode and the patrimony pf the Papacy , " and Catholicism would no longer be Catholicism : not that it would thereby cease to be Christianity ; it would merely be another form of the Gospel . . The character of infallibility , which the Church attributes to the ' sovereign Pontiff , excludes in the Roman States all national representation , in the same way that it excludes , in the order of ideas , all religious tolerance , all'liberty of thought , all criticism , and all philosophy . Home , the Pope , the ex purgatorial index , Jesuitism , the laws against sacrilege and blasphemy , are all things of which the existence is inseparable , or rather , to " speak more correctly , these are only the manifold forms of one and the same ' principle ,: —authority " . ¦ 'Catholicism is not an assemblage of heterogeneous elements ; it is an edifice , immense , harmonic , where everything is bound and blended , where everything is in Jts place * where no part can be severed from the whole , where the whole cannot live robbed of a single one of its parts . Titlce away a stone , only one , everything falls to pieces : and of this splendid monument which the Protestant Leibnitz admired as the masterpiece of human skill , nothing remains but ruin , desolation , .-chaos .-. Between Catholicism , and liberty there is no possible ; compromise : we must necessarily choose , . the one and reject--the ' ' other . But to intrust to the Pope the guardianship ( if liberty is , by an inc > m ; eivable aberration , to place the keys of the forts-ess in the hands of " , the enemy . . . . Tliis , M . Debrit , is the truth : but it is not tire whole truth . We believe that Rosuiiui , Mauviaiii , Gioberti , and many earnest and patriotic souls haye been deluded : but ' we think that the delusion was natural ernxnyh . Read Joseph T ) e Maistre ; read Lavnennais read any one who strenuously upheld the Papacy without being a J . isuit , and you will . find- " that . tire idea pf the Papacy is that of unity and universality , not that of authority and infallibility . The power of the popes really arose from the holiest principles of human nature , and in them it stilfsub . sists . One faith " , one worship , one celestial brotherhood , these , and not any theological . crotchets of authority and infallibility , are what the Catholic , heart clings to ; Now , as faith , and worship , and brotherhood "demaud-a religions bond , why should not the Pope symbolise the . bond ? And while symbolising the head , why should not the Pope be the patriot of patriots in Italy ? With : the vanity of southern nations , liosmini , Mamiani , Gioberti , wished still more to . see Italy foremost than free . Gioberti proved this by his boundless and yet sincere contradictions . The French would all turn Voltaii-eans to-morrow , if thereby they could add a thousand square miles to the -. area . . of France . In politics we demand noble motives—unimpeachable veracity , ardent patriotism , thorough unselfishness : but wo do not demand absolute wisdom : —in politics , still more than in war , we must be satis lied , not with complete victories , hut with the fewest failures . As regards politics , then , we have not one word of condemnation , or even Of criticism , to fling at Rosmini , Maminnj , and Giohertj . But in philosophy the affair changes its aspect altogether . These tlirco gi'ted-men are certainly nut original in philosophy : —they are all the less original from clinging st > exclusively to Italian traditions , aridfrom overlooking what the only -grout philosophers of modern diiys , the Germans , achieved . Patriotism is of every countryphilosophy is of no country . Tho Italians have Iiud tho subliineat philosophers ; Thomas Aquinas , our dearly beloved Giordano Bruno , the Martyr Campanula , and so many more . ¦ liosmini * Mamiani , and Gioburti , are incomparably inferior to all those mun . But it is strango that so murUcd , so persistent , so lioroe , and so polemical as is Italian individuality , that thero lius never yet been a pun ? Italia , n philosopher . Every Italian philosopher has hail a theological , sciciiiliiic , or political battle to light . It seems as if tho battling genius of the ancient Roman were immortal in Italy . * For M . Bob rib wo . havo most cordial and grateful words . Ho is somewhat i . mpri . sonod in formulas ; but ho moans well , knows what lie is , about , and is very modest . Road him , if only for his modosty . ' .
wild fanaticism—that n divine faith Wo as a credulity . They were Italians and Cufjholios , and wo are Protosluufs and Englishmen . . ¦ Q-n o of their errors wo think pardonable enough—that of talcing ' a liberal Popo ns ( lie centre of ti now Italian Civilisation ; thus placing 1 Itul / for tho third timo at tho head of Europe—of tho world . Republican , succeeded by Imperial , Rome was supremo in nnliquity ; Pan il Kome , with its magnilioent liaudinaidonN , tho Itnliuu Republics ' , was supreme in tho Middle Ages . Why should not for si third time Italy conquer , command , transform mankind H Let us hoar , livst of all , M . Pobrifs reply to Mio question .
It is verily sti-ango , ho siia-h , to sop ho inuny yiltoil inmas , bo many noble intelligoncos , found all their hopes for the future on tho inad conception of a Liboral Papacy , us if those two words uxuposed did uofc involve u flagrant contradiction . H doos not
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rpi-IR world , as it jrrows older , loses much ol its rovoronoo X iiiiciont Romo . Tiio virtues of tho ropnblia dwiudlo uwiiy , whilst ' the vices of tho oinpiro Htand out inoro proininoiif . 1 hat roinoi'solqsa criticism which has robbed tho nublo pages ' of LiW ot tho diarm which faith in tho heroic deeds tlioy recount lout to thorn , has loft uiuiniuurod the tOHtimony which llio epigrams ot MAnviAt . give to tho ntonsbrotw dobimohory oi tlio Ojbsaus and thoiv Hubjoeta . Tho historian has ci > mo to bo roaurdod ub a poet , lpaing tl ' nis his groiilcflt morjtj and tUo poet , hb wit aiul tfraco uniilVecitod , tuUos rank as an historian—not , indeed , ot . pillage ainq shuiirhtor , but of wlmfc is as . muesli regarded now-a-duys—milliners and iriomls , Whoro will the curious students of the ywir 4 »<> fM . i > . got such photognipliH of our p ^ oadillnuaP Thank Honvou , inuood , wo
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March 17 , I 860 . ] The Leader and Saturday Analyst . 257
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* liltitoh'o dv » JJ-. totrtiWH P / ilfvsupfrfijitos < l « i >* I'Ttnllo Conhmpnrnhio . I ' m- Maho DHimn \ I ' aris : ^ U » ym « lrt .
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* The VJplwma of MtvlM . T ^ nsl . itod into Kmj liflh proBO . Booh ftoooiapuuiod ' by one ur »» yre vorno trmiHlntloiiB , etc . n , u . i » r » iui .
Italian Political Philosophy*
ITALIAN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY *
Martial.*
MARTIAL . *
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), March 17, 1860, page 257, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2338/page/13/
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