lain his
conception of the universe as a complex animated organism, his
conviction that true knowledge can only be gained by the interrogation
of nature, his doctrine of human life and action, and his judgment of
the age in which he lived. The political sonnets fall into two groups--
those which discuss royalty, nobility, and the sovereignty of the
people, and those which treat of the several European states. The
prophetic sonnets seem to have been suggested by the misery and
corruption of Italy, and express the poet's belief in the speedy
triumph of right and reason. It is here too that his astrological
opinions are most clearly manifested; for Campanella was far from
having outgrown the belief in planetary influences. Indeed, his own
metaphysical speculations, involving the principle of immanent vitality
in the material universe, gave a new value to the dreams of the
astrologers. Among the personal sonnets may be placed those which refer
immediately to his own sufferings in prison, to his friendships, and to
the ideal of the philosophic character.

I have thought it best, while indicating this fourfold division, to
preserve the order adopted by Adami, since each of the reprints
accessible to modern readers--both that of Orelli and that of D'Ancona--
maintains the arrangement of the _editio princeps._ Two sonnets of the
prophetic group I have omitted, partly because they have no bearing on
the world as it exists for us at present, and partly because they are
too studiously obscure for profitable reproduction.[13] As in the case
of Michael Angelo, so also in that of Campanella, I have left the
Canzoni untouched, except by way of illustration in the notes appended
to my volume. They are important and voluminous enough to form a
separate book; nor do they seem to me so well adapted as the sonnets
for translation into English.

To give reasons for my choice of certain readings in the case of either
Michael Angelo's or Campanella's text; to explain why I have sometimes
preferred a strictly literal and sometimes a more paraphrastic
rendering; or to set forth my views in detail regarding the compromises
which are necessary in translation, and which must vary according to
the exigencies of each successive problem offered by the original,
would occupy too much space. Where I have thought it absolutely
necessary, I have referred to such points in my notes. It is enough
here to remark that the difficulties presented to the tran