common-places incorrectly and inappropriately, X upsets him
without effort. As a specimen of the style of logic adopted, I will take
one case at hazard. S states that "his reason of all reasons is, that
Italy belongs to the Italians, and that the Italians have the right of
dividing it, uniting it, and governing it, as seems good in their own
sight." To this X answers, "I adopt and apply your own principle. Turin,
with its houses, belongs to the Turinese; therefore the Turinese have the
right to divide or unite the houses of Turin, or drive out their
possessors, as seems good in their own sight." The gross
disingenuousness, the palpable quibble in this argument, need no
exposure. Logically, however, the argument is rather above the usual
range. X then proceeds to frighten S with the old bugbears;--the
impossibility of real union between the Italian races; the absorption of
the local small capitals in the event of a great kingdom, and the
certainty that the European powers will never consent to an Italian
monarchy. This conclusion is a short _resume_ of Papal history, which
will somewhat surprise the readers of Ranke and Gibbon.

"After the death of Constantine, the almost regal authority of the Popes
in reality commenced. Gregory the Great, created Pope 440 A.D. was
compelled for the safety of Italy to exercise this authority against the
Lombards on one hand, and the rapacious Exarchs on the other. About 726
A.D. Gregory II. declined the offer of Ravenna, Venice, and the other
Italian States, who conferred upon him, in name as well as in fact, the
sovereignty of Italy. At last, in 741 A.D. when Italy was not only
deserted in her need, but threatened from Byzantium with desolation and
heresy, Gregory III. called in the aid of Charles Martel, that Italy
might not perish; and by this law, a law of life and preservation, and
through the decree of Providence, the Popes became Italian sovereigns,
both in right and fact." On this very lucid and satisfactory account of
the origin of the Papal power, S is convinced at once, and is finally
dismissed shamefaced, with the unanswerable interrogation, "whether the
real object of the Revolution is not to create new men, new nations, new
reason, new humanity, and a new God?"

The three abstractions, S, M, D, then re-assemble to recant their errors.
One and all avow themselves confuted, and convicted of folly or worse. X
gives them absolution with the qualified approval, th