the knowledge of mere matter.

I have selected the Ultramontane party in the Church of Rome as the most
prominent example of a party eminent for many intellectual virtues, and
yet opposed to the intellectual life from its own want of
disinterestedness. But the same defect exists, to some degree, in every
partisan--exists in you and me so far as we are partisans. Let us
suppose, for example, that we desired to find out the truth about a
question much agitated in a neighboring country at the present time--the
question whether it would be better for that country to attempt the
restoration of its ancient Monarchy or to try to consolidate a
Republican form of government. How difficult it is to think out such a
problem disinterestedly, and yet how necessary to the justice of our
conclusions that we should think disinterestedly if we pretend to think
at all! It is true that we have one circumstance in our favor--we are
not French subjects, and this is much. Still we are not disinterested,
since we know that the settlement of a great political problem such as
this, even though on foreign soil, cannot fail to have a powerful
influence on opinion in our own country, and consequently upon the
institutions of our native land. We are spectators only, it is true; but
we are far from being disinterested spectators. And if you desire to
measure the exact degree to which we are interested in the result, you
need only look at the newspapers. The English newspapers always treat
French affairs from the standpoint of their own party. The Conservative
journalist in England is a Monarchist in France, and has no hopes for
the Republic; the Liberal journalist in England believes that the French
dynasties are used up, and sees no chance of tranquillity outside of
republican institutions. In both cases there is an impediment to the
intellectual appreciation of the problem.

This difficulty is so strongly felt by those who write and read the sort
of literature which aspires to permanence, and which, therefore, ought
to have a substantial intellectual basis, that either our distinguished
poets choose their subjects in actions long past and half-forgotten, or
else, when tempted by present excitement, they produce work which is
artistically far inferior to their best. Our own generation has
witnessed three remarkable events which are poetical in the highest
degree. The conquest of the Two Sicilies by Garibaldi is a most perfect
subject for a heroic