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."
