But such a change! He scarce knew his native
Italy,--it was so unlike the Italy he had left. In every town, and
village, and rural district, schools had sprung up since the fall of the
Pontifical Government. There were day-schools and night-schools,
week-day-schools and Sabbath-schools. The young men and young women had
forgotten their "light loves," and were busied in educating themselves,
and in educating the little boys and girls below them. The country
appeared to have resolved itself into a great educational institute. He
was inexpressibly delighted. Such a change he had never dared to hope
for in his native land. But ah! back came the Pope; and in a week,--in
one short week,--every one of these schools was closed. The Roman youth
are again handed over to the Jesuit. Italy is again sunk in its old
torpor and stagnation; and one black cloud of barbaric ignorance extends
from the Mediterranean to the Adriatic.

I sat down one day on the steps of the temple of Vesta, which, though
gray and crumbling with age, is one of the most beautiful of the ruins
of Rome. Three boys came about me to beg a few baiocchi. The youngest
boy, I found, was ten years, and the oldest fifteen. I took the
opportunity of putting a few questions to them, judging them a fair
sample of the Roman youth. My queries were pitched low enough. "Can you
tell me," I asked, "who made the world?" The question started a subject
on which they seemed never to have thought before. They stood in a muse
for some seconds; and then all three looked round them, as if they
expected to see the world's Maker, or to read His name somewhere. At
last the youngest and smartest of the three spoke briskly up,--"The
masons, Signor." It was now my turn to feel the excitement of a new
idea. Yet I thought I could see the train of thought that led to the
answer. The masons had made the baths of Caracalla; the masons had made
the Coliseum, and those other stupendous structures which in bulk rival
the hills, and seem as eternal as the earth on which they rest; and why
might not the masons have made the whole affair? I might have puzzled
the boy by asking, "But who made the masons?" My object, however, was
simply to ascertain the amount of his knowledge. I demurred to the
proposition that the masons had made the world, and desired them to try
again. They did try again, and at last the eldest of the three found his
way to the right answer,--"God." "Have you ever heard of Christ?" I