Charles Whistler - "King Olaf's Kinsman"

Harold MacGrath - " The Princess Elopes"

Margaret, Queen Of Navarre - "The Tales Of The Heptameron, Vol. V. (of V.)"

Wilhelm Alfred Braun - "Types of Weltschmerz in German Poetry"

Author of ‘Conversations With God’ Admits Essay Wasn’t His
Steve Knopper’s stark accounting of the mistakes major record labels have made in the digital era suggests they are largely responsible for their own demise.

Books of The Times: When Labels Fought the Digital, and the Digital Won
Oprah.com, the Web site of “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” has posted a disclaimer acknowledging that Herman Rosenblat admitted he had invented portions of his Holocaust memoir.

Arts, Briefly: Winfrey Web Site Notes Fabricated Memoir
Mr. Seaver defied censorship and conventional literary standards to bring works by rabble-rousing authors like Samuel Beckett, Henry Miller and William Burroughs to American readers.

Margaret Fuller Ossoli - At Home And Abroad

M >> Margaret Fuller Ossoli >> At Home And Abroad




"Softly sublime, profusely fair."

Lugano is more savage, more free in its beauty. I was on it in a
high gale; there was a little clanger, just enough to exhilarate; its
waters were wild, and clouds blowing across the neighboring peaks. I
like very much the boatmen on these lakes; they have strong and prompt
character. Of simple features, they are more honest and manly than
Italian men are found in the thoroughfares; their talk is not so witty
as that of the Venetian gondoliers, but picturesque, and what the
French call _incisive_. Very touching were some of their histories, as
they told them to me while pausing sometimes on the lake.

On this lake, also, I met Lady Franklin, wife of the celebrated
navigator. She has been in the United States, and showed equal
penetration and candor in remarks on what she had seen there. She gave
me interesting particulars as to the state of things in Van Diemen's
Land, where she passed seven years when her husband was in authority
there.

I returned to Milan for the great feast of the Madonna, 8th September,
and those made for the Archbishop's entry, which took place the same
week. These excited as much feeling as the Milanese can have a chance
to display, this Archbishop being much nearer tire public heart than
his predecessor, who was a poor servant of Austria.

The Austrian rule is always equally hated, and time, instead of
melting away differences, only makes them more glaring. The Austrian
race have no faculties that can ever enable them to understand the
Italian character; their policy, so well contrived to palsy and
repress for a time, cannot kill, and there is always a force at work
underneath which shall yet, and I think now before long, shake off
the incubus. The Italian nobility have always kept the invader at a
distance; they have not been at all seduced or corrupted by the lures
of pleasure or power, but have shown a passive patriotism highly
honorable to them. In the middle class ferments much thought, and
there is a capacity for effort; in the present system it cannot show
itself, but it is there; thought ferments, and will yet produce a
wine that shall set the Lombard veins on fire when the time for action
shall arrive. The lower classes of the population are in a dull state
indeed. The censorship of the press prevents all easy, natural ways of
instructing them; there are no public meetings, no free access to them
by more instructed and aspiring minds. The Austrian policy is to allow
them a degree of material well-being, and though so much wealth is
drained from, the country for the service of the foreigners, jet
enough must remain on these rich plains comfortably to feed and clothe
the inhabitants. Yet the great moral influence of the Pope's action,
though obstructed in their case, does reach and rouse them, and they,
too, felt the thrill of indignation at the occupation of Ferrara. The
base conduct of the police toward the people, when, at Milan, some
youths were resolute to sing tire hymn in honor of Pius IX., when the
feasts for the Archbishop afforded so legitimate an occasion, roused
all the people to unwonted feeling. The nobles protested, and Austria
had not courage to persist as usual. She could not sustain her police,
who rushed upon a defenceless crowd, that had no share in what excited
their displeasure, except by sympathy, and, driving them like sheep,
wounded them _in the backs_. Austria feels that there is now no
sympathy for her in these matters; that it is not the interest of the
world to sustain her. Her policy is, indeed, too thoroughly organized
to change except by revolution; its scope is to serve, first, a
reigning family instead of the people; second, with the people to
seek a physical in preference to an intellectual good; and, third,
to prefer a seeming outward peace to an inward life. This policy may
change its opposition from the tyrannical to the insidious; it can
know no other change. Yet do I meet persons who call themselves
Americans,--miserable, thoughtless Esaus, unworthy their high
birthright,--who think that a mess of pottage can satisfy the wants of
man, and that the Viennese listening to Strauss's waltzes, the Lombard
peasant supping full of his polenta, is _happy enough_. Alas: I have
the more reason to be ashamed of my countrymen that it is not among
the poor, who have so much, toil that there is little time to think,
but those who are rich, who travel,--in body that is, they do not
travel in mind. Absorbed at home by the lust of gain, the love of
show, abroad they see only the equipages, the fine clothes, the
food,--they have no heart for the idea, for the destiny of our own
great nation: how can they feel the spirit that is struggling now in
this and others of Europe?

But of the hopes of Italy I will write more fully in another letter,
and state what I have seen, what felt, what thought. I went from
Milan, to Pavia, and saw its magnificent Certosa, I passed several
hours in examining its riches, especially the sculptures of its
facade, full of force and spirit. I then went to Florence by Parma
and Bologna. In Parma, though ill, I went to see all the works of the
masters. A wonderful beauty it is that informs them,--not that which
is the chosen food of my soul, yet a noble beauty, and which did its
message to me also. Those works are failing; it will not be useless to
describe them in a book. Beside these pictures, I saw nothing in Parma
and Modena; these states are obliged to hold their breath while their
poor, ignorant sovereigns skulk in corners, hoping to hide from the
coming storm. Of all this more in my next.




LETTER XVII.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF ROME IN THE SPRING.--THE POPE.--ROME AS
A CAPITAL.--TUSCANY.--THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS THERE JUST
ESTABLISHED.--THE ENLIGHTENED MINDS AND AVAILABLE INSTRUCTORS OF
TUSCANY.--ITALIAN ESTIMATION OF PIUS IX., AND THE INFLUENCE,
PRESENT AND FUTURE, OF HIS LABORS.--FOREIGN INTRUSION THE CURSE OF
ITALY.--IRRUPTION OF THE AUSTRIANS INTO ITALY, AND ITS EFFECTS.--LOUIS
PHILIPPE'S APOSTASY TURNED TO THE ADVANTAGE OF FREEDOM.--THE GREAT
FETE AT FLORENCE IN HONOR OF THE GRANT OF A NATIONAL GUARD.--THE
AMERICAN SCULPTORS, GREENOUGH, CRAWFORD, AND THEIR PARTICIPATION IN
THE FETE.--AMERICANS GENERALLY IN ITALY.--HYMNS IN FLORENCE IN HONOR
OF PIUS IX.--HAPPY AUGURY TO BE DRAWN FROM THE WISE DOCILITY OF THE
PEOPLE.--AN EXPRESSION OF SYMPATHY FROM AMERICA TOWARD ITALY EARNESTLY
HOPED FOR.


Rome, October 18, 1847.

In the spring, when I came to Rome, the people were in the
intoxication of joy at the first serious measures of reform taken
by the Pope. I saw with pleasure their childlike joy and trust. With
equal pleasure I saw the Pope, who has not in his expression the signs
of intellectual greatness so much as of nobleness and tenderness of
heart, of large and liberal sympathies. Heart had spoken to heart
between the prince and the people; it was beautiful to see the
immediate good influence exerted by human feeling and generous
designs, on the part of a ruler. He had wished to be a father, and
the Italians, with that readiness of genius that characterizes them,
entered at once into the relation; they, the Roman people, stigmatized
by prejudice as so crafty and ferocious, showed themselves children,
eager to learn, quick to obey, happy to confide.

Still doubts were always present whether all this joy was not
premature. The task undertaken by the Pope seemed to present
insuperable difficulties. It is never easy to put new wine into old
bottles, and our age is one where all things tend to a great crisis;
not merely to revolution, but to radical reform. From the people
themselves the help must come, and not from princes; in the new state
of things, there will be none but natural princes, great men. From the
aspirations of the general heart, from the teachings of conscience
in individuals, and not from an old ivy-covered church long since
undermined, corroded by time and gnawed by vermin, the help must come.
Rome, to resume her glory, must cease to be an ecclesiastical capital;
must renounce all this gorgeous mummery, whose poetry, whose picture,
charms no one more than myself, but whose meaning is all of the past,
and finds no echo in the future. Although I sympathized warmly with
the warm love of the people, the adulation of leading writers, who
were so willing to take all from the hand of the prince, of the
Church, as a gift and a bounty, instead of implying steadily that it
was the right of the people, was very repulsive to me. The moderate
party, like all who, in a transition state, manage affairs with a
constant eye to prudence, lacks dignity always in its expositions; it
is disagreeable and depressing to read them.

Passing into Tuscany, I found the liberty of the press just
established, and a superior preparation to make use of it. The _Alba_,
the _Patria_, were begun, and have been continued with equal judgment
and spirit. Their aim is to educate the youth, to educate the
lower people; they see that this is to be done by promoting thought
fearlessly, yet urge temperance in action, while the time is yet so
difficult, and many of its signs dubious. They aim at breaking down
those barriers between the different states of Italy, relics of a
barbarous state of polity, artificially kept up by the craft of her
foes. While anxious not to break down what is really native to the
Italian character,--defences and differences that give individual
genius a chance to grow and the fruits of each region to ripen in
their natural way,--they aim at a harmony of spirit as to measures
of education and for the affairs of business, without which Italy can
never, as one nation, present a front strong enough to resist foreign
robbery, and for want of which so much time and talent are wasted
here, and internal development almost wholly checked.

There is in Tuscany a large corps of enlightened minds, well prepared
to be the instructors, the elder brothers and guardians, of the lower
people, and whose hearts burn to fulfil that noble office. Before, it
had been almost impossible to them, for the reasons I have named in
speaking of Lombardy; but during these last four months that the way
has been opened by the freedom of the press, and establishment of the
National Guard,--so valuable, first of all, as giving occasion for
public meetings and free interchange of thought between the different
classes,--it is surprising how much light they have been able to
diffuse.

A Bolognese, to whom I observed, "How can you be so full of trust when
all your hopes depend, not on the recognition of principles and wants
throughout the people, but on the life of one mortal man?" replied:
"Ah! but you don't consider that his life gives us a chance to effect
that recognition. If Pius IX. be spared to us five years, it will
be impossible for his successors ever to take a backward course. Our
nation is of a genius so vivacious,--we are unhappy, but not stupid,
we Italians,--we can learn as much in two months as other nations in
twenty years." This seemed to me no brag when I returned to Tuscany
and saw the great development and diffusion of thought that had taken
place during my brief absence. The Grand Duke, a well-intentioned,
though dull man, had dared, to declare himself "_an_ ITALIAN _prince_"
and the heart of Tuscany had bounded with hope. It is now deeply as
justly felt that _the_ curse of Italy is foreign intrusion; that
if she could dispense with foreign aid, and be free from foreign
aggression, she would find the elements of salvation within herself.
All her efforts tend that way, to re-establish the natural position of
things; may Heaven grant them success! For myself, I believe they will
attain it. I see more reason for hope, as I know more of the people.
Their rash and baffled struggles have taught them prudence; they are
wanted in the civilized world as a peculiar influence; their leaders
are thinking men, their cause is righteous. I believe that Italy will
revive to new life, and probably a greater, one more truly rich and
glorious, than at either epoch of her former greatness.

During the period of my absence, the Austrians had entered Ferrara.
It is well that they hazarded this step, for it showed them the
difficulties in acting against a prince of the Church who is at the
same time a friend to the people. The position was new, and they were
probably surprised at the result,--surprised at the firmness of the
Pope, surprised at the indignation, tempered by calm resolve, on the
part of the Italians. Louis Philippe's mean apostasy has this
time turned to the advantage of freedom. He renounced the good
understanding with England which it had been one of the leading
features of his policy to maintain, in the hope of aggrandizing and
enriching his family (not France, he did not care for France); he did
not know that he was paving the way for Italian freedom. England now
is led to play a part a little nearer her pretensions as the guardian
of progress than she often comes, and the ghost of La Fayette looks
down, not unappeased, to see the "Constitutional King" decried by the
subjects he has cheated and lulled so craftily. The king of Sardinia
is a worthless man, in whom nobody puts any trust so far as regards
his heart or honor; but the stress of things seems likely to keep him
on the right side. The little sovereigns blustered at first, then ran
away affrighted when they found there was really a spirit risen
at last within the charmed circle,--a spirit likely to defy, to
transcend, the spells of haggard premiers and imbecile monarchs.

I arrived in Florence, unhappily, too late for the great fete of the
12th of September, in honor of the grant of a National Guard. But
I wept at the mere recital of the events of that day, which, if it
should lead to no important results, must still be hallowed for ever
in the memory of Italy, for the great and beautiful emotions that
flooded the hearts of her children. The National Guard is hailed with
no undue joy by Italians, as the earnest of progress, the first step
toward truly national institutions and a representation of the people.
Gratitude has done its natural work in their hearts; it has made
them better. Some days before the fete were passed in reconciling
all strifes, composing all differences between cities, districts, and
individuals. They wished to drop all petty, all local differences, to
wash away all stains, to bathe and prepare for a new great covenant of
brotherly love, where each should act for the good of all. On that day
they all embraced in sign of this,--strangers, foes, all exchanged the
kiss of faith and love; they exchanged banners, as a token that they
would fight for, would animate, one another. All was done in that
beautiful poetic manner peculiar to this artist people; but it was the
spirit, so great and tender, that melts my heart to think of. It was
the spirit of true religion,--such, my Country! as, welling freshly
from some great hearts in thy early hours, won for thee all of value
that thou canst call thy own, whose groundwork is the assertion, still
sublime though thou hast not been true to it, that all men have equal
rights, and that these are _birth_-rights, derived from God alone.

I rejoice to say that the Americans took their share on this occasion,
and that Greenough--one of the few Americans who, living in Italy,
takes the pains to know whether it is alive or dead, who penetrates
beyond the cheats of tradesmen and the cunning of a mob corrupted
by centuries of slavery, to know the real mind, the vital blood, of
Italy--took a leading part. I am sorry to say that a large portion of
my countrymen here take the same slothful and prejudiced view as the
English, and, after many years' sojourn, betray entire ignorance of
Italian literature and Italian life, beyond what is attainable in a
month's passage through the thoroughfares. However, they did show,
this time, a becoming spirit, and erected the American eagle where
its cry ought to be heard from afar,--where a nation is striving
for independent existence, and a government representing the people.
Crawford here in Rome has had the just feeling to join the Guard, and
it is a real sacrifice for an artist to spend time on the exercises;
but it well becomes the sculptor of Orpheus,--of him who had such
faith, such music of divine thought, that he made the stones move,
turned the beasts from their accustomed haunts, and shamed hell itself
into sympathy with the grief of love. I do not deny that such a spirit
is wanted here in Italy; it is everywhere, if anything great, anything
permanent, is to be done. In reference to what I have said of many
Americans in Italy, I will only add, that they talk about the corrupt
and degenerate state of Italy as they do about that of our slaves at
home. They come ready trained to that mode of reasoning which affirms
that, because men are degraded by bad institutions, they are not fit
for better.

As to the English, some of them are full of generous, intelligent
sympathy;--indeed what is more solidly, more wisely good than the
right sort of Englishmen!--but others are like a gentleman I travelled
with the other day, a man of intelligence and refinement too as to the
details of life and outside culture, who observed, that he did not
see what the Italians wanted of a National Guard, unless to wear these
little caps. He was a man who had passed five years in Italy, but
always covered with that non-conductor called by a witty French writer
"the Britannic fluid."

Very sweet to my ear was the continual hymn in the streets of
Florence, in honor of Pius IX. It is the Roman hymn, and none of the
new ones written in Tuscany have been able to take its place. The
people thank the Grand Duke when he does them good, but they know well
from whose mind that good originates, and all their love is for the
Pope. Time presses, or I would fain describe in detail the troupe of
laborers of the lower class, marching home at night, keeping step as
if they were in the National Guard, filling the air, and cheering the
melancholy moon, by the patriotic hymns sung with the mellow tone and
in the perfect time which belong to Italians. I would describe the
extempore concerts in the streets, the rejoicings at the theatres,
where the addresses of liberal souls to the people, through that best
vehicle, the drama, may now be heard. But I am tired; what I have to
write would fill volumes, and my letter must go. I will only add
some words upon the happy augury I draw from the wise docility of the
people. With what readiness they listened to wise counsel, and the
hopes of the Pope that they would give no advantage to his enemies, at
a time when they were so fevered by the knowledge that conspiracy
was at work in their midst! That was a time of trial. On all these
occasions of popular excitement their conduct is like music, in such
order, and with such union of the melody of feeling with discretion
where to stop; but what is wonderful is that they acted in the same
manner on that difficult occasion. The influence of the Pope here is
without bounds; he can always calm the crowd at once. But in Tuscany,
where they have no such idol, they listened in the same way on a very
trying occasion. The first announcement of the regulation for the
Tuscan National Guard terribly disappointed the people; they felt that
the Grand Duke, after suffering them to demonstrate such trust and joy
on the feast of the 12th, did not really trust, on his side; that he
meant to limit them all he could. They felt baffled, cheated; hence
young men in anger tore down at once the symbols of satisfaction and
respect; but the leading men went among the people, begged them to be
calm, and wait till a deputation had seen the Grand Duke. The people,
listening at once to men who, they were sure, had at heart their best
good, waited; the Grand Duke became convinced, and all ended without
disturbance. If they continue to act thus, their hopes cannot be
baffled. Certainly I, for one, do not think that the present road will
suffice to lead Italy to her goal. But it _is_ an onward, upward road,
and the people learn as they advance. Now they can seek and think
fearless of prisons and bayonets, a healthy circulation of blood
begins, and the heart frees itself from disease.

I earnestly hope for some expression of sympathy from my country
toward Italy. Take a good chance and do something; you have shown much
good feeling toward the Old World in its physical difficulties,--you
ought to do still more in its spiritual endeavor. This cause is
OURS, above all others; we ought to show that we feel it to be so. At
present there is no likelihood of war, but in case of it I trust the
United States would not fail in some noble token of sympathy toward
this country. The soul of our nation need not wait for its government;
these things are better done by individuals. I believe some in the
United States will pay attention to these words of mine, will feel
that I am not a person to be kindled by a childish, sentimental
enthusiasm, but that I must be sure I have seen something of Italy
before speaking as I do. I have been here only seven months, but my
means of observation have been uncommon. I have been ardently desirous
to judge fairly, and had no prejudices to prevent; beside, I was not
ignorant of the history and literature of Italy, and had some common
ground on which to stand with, its inhabitants, and hear what they
have to say. In many ways Italy is of kin to us; she is the country
of Columbus, of Amerigo, of Cabot. It would please me much to see a
cannon here bought by the contributions of Americans, at whose head
should stand the name of Cabot, to be used by the Guard for salutes
on festive occasions, if they should be so happy as to have no
more serious need. In Tuscany they are casting one to be called the
"Gioberti," from a writer who has given a great impulse to the present
movement. I should like the gift of America to be called the AMERIGO,
the COLUMBO, or the WASHINGTON. Please think of this, some of my
friends, who still care for the eagle, the Fourth of July, and the old
cries of hope and honor. See if there are any objections that I do not
think of, and do something if it is well and brotherly. Ah! America,
with all thy rich boons, thou hast a heavy account to render for the
talent given; see in every way that thou be not found wanting.




LETTER XVIII.

REFLECTIONS FOR THE NEW YEAR.--AMERICANS IN EUROPE.--FRANCE, ENGLAND,
POLAND, ITALY, RUSSIA, AUSTRIA,--THEIR POLICY.--EUROPE TOILS AND
STRUGGLES.--ALL THINGS BODE A NEW OUTBREAK.--THE EAGLE OF
AMERICA STOOPS TO EARTH, AND SHARES THE CHARACTER OF THE
VULTURE.--ABOLITION.--THE YOUTH OF THE LAND.--ANTICIPATIONS OF THEIR
USEFULNESS.


This letter will reach the United States about the 1st of January; and
it may not be impertinent to offer a few New-Year's reflections. Every
new year, indeed, confirms the old thoughts, but also presents them
under some new aspects.

The American in Europe, if a thinking mind, can only become more
American. In some respects it is a great pleasure to be here. Although
we have an independent political existence, bur position toward
Europe, as to literature and the arts, is still that of a colony, and
one feels the same joy here that is experienced by the colonist in
returning to the parent home. What was but picture to us becomes
reality; remote allusions and derivations trouble no more: we see the
pattern of the stuff, and understand the whole tapestry. There is
a gradual clearing up on many points, and many baseless notions and
crude fancies are dropped. Even the post-haste passage of the business
American through the great cities, escorted by cheating couriers
and ignorant _valets de place_, unable to hold intercourse with the
natives of the country, and passing all his leisure hours with his
countrymen, who know no more than himself, clears his mind of some
mistakes,--lifts some mists from his horizon.

There are three species. First, the servile American,--a being utterly
shallow, thoughtless, worthless. He comes abroad to spend his money
and indulge his tastes. His object in Europe is to have fashionable
clothes, good foreign cookery, to know some titled persons, and
furnish himself with coffee-house gossip, by retailing which
among those less travelled and as uninformed as himself he can win
importance at home. I look with unspeakable contempt on this class,--a
class which has all the thoughtlessness and partiality of the
exclusive classes in Europe, without any of their refinement, or the
chivalric feeling which still sparkles among them here and there.
However, though these willing serfs in a free age do some little hurt,
and cause some annoyance at present, they cannot continue long; our
country is fated to a grand, independent existence, and, as its laws
develop, these parasites of a bygone period must wither and drop away.

Then there is the conceited American, instinctively bristling and
proud of--he knows not what. He does not see, not he, that the history
of Humanity for many centuries is likely to have produced results it
requires some training, some devotion, to appreciate and profit by.
With his great clumsy hands, only fitted to work on a steam-engine,
he seizes the old Cremona violin, makes it shriek with anguish, in his
grasp, and then declares he thought it was all humbug before he came,
and now he knows it; that there is not really any music in these old
things; that the frogs in one of our swamps make much finer, for they
are young and alive. To him the etiquettes of courts and camps, the
ritual of the Church, seem simply silly,--and no wonder, profoundly
ignorant as he is of their origin and meaning. Just so the legends
which are the subjects of pictures, the profound myths which are
represented in the antique marbles, amaze and revolt him; as, indeed,
such things need to be judged of by another standard than that of the
Connecticut Blue-Laws. He criticises severely pictures, feeling quite
sure that his natural senses are better means of judgment than the
rules of connoisseurs,--not feeling that, to see such objects, mental
vision as well as fleshly eyes are needed and that something is aimed
at in Art beyond the imitation of the commonest forms of Nature. This
is Jonathan in the sprawling state, the booby truant, not yet aspiring
enough to be a good school-boy. Yet in his folly there is meaning;
add thought and culture to his independence, and he will be a man of
might: he is not a creature without hope, like the thick-skinned dandy
of the class first specified.

Copyright (c) 2007. topmasterworks.com. All rights reserved.