Surely the moral of these two pictures speaks for itself. Put aside
abstract political considerations, put aside, too, theological questions,
and look at broad facts patent to all. If anybody can see Rome and the
Papal States, and still believe that the people are happy or prosperous
or faring with good prospects either for this world or the next, I can
say nothing more. His eyes are not my eyes, nor his judgment mine. For
those to whom this ocular testimony is denied, I have written these
papers. I have sought to make present to them the utter dreariness, the
hopeless discontent, the abject demoralization, which strike a resident
in Rome, unless he refuses wilfully to see the truth. In the dead Rome
of real life; in the universal spiritless immorality of Roman society; in
the decay of what once was the Roman people; in the squalid misery of the
country towns, miserable even in their merriment; in the utter isolation
of the Papal States, a moral lazaretto amongst European kingdoms, you see
only too plainly the permanent condition of the country. As to the
present misery, you can read its signs in those pageants which impose on
no one; in the Carnivals, where there are no revellers; in the solemn
ceremonies, where the worshippers are sought in vain; and in the sad,
sullen, hopeless demonstrations, whereby a people protest constantly that
they are weary of their fate.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222