ect, is to break with the supposed tradition of
fourteen centuries, and with all his own past training, predilections,
and habits of thought; it is to nullify his own voluntary act of the
past, accepting implicit obedience, and to go forth on a path which has
thenceforth no outward guidance, light, or stay. To accept, is to break
with all his own truest and deepest past, to abandon all that for him
gives truth and reality to life, and to retire to his cell, and limit his
attention thenceforth--if he can--to making the "salvation" of his own
soul secure. We may safely esteem that this is the culminating struggle
of his life. We may well understand the solemn pause that ensues, the
retirement to solitude, there to review the position before the only
court of appeal that remains to him,--that inward voice of conscience,
that inward sense of right, which is the immediate presence of God
within. But we never doubt what the decision will be. "I must obey God
rather than man; I cannot recognise that this voice--even of God's
vicegerent--is the voice of God. Necessity is laid on me, which I dare
not gainsay, to preach this Gospel of God's kingdom, as, even on earth, a
kingdom of righteousness, truth, and love."

Such is one phase of the Savonarola here portrayed to us; and herein is
placed before us the secret of his greatness and strength. This firm
assertion of the highest right his consciousness recognises, amid all
difficulty, hardness, and disappointment; this persistent endeavour by
precept and example to rouse men to a truer and better life than their
own varied self-seekings; this unflinching struggle against everything
false, mean, and base,--these things make him a power in the State before
which King and Pope are compelled to bow in respect or fear. Over even
the larger nature of Romola his words at this time have sway,--the sway
which more distinct perception of _all_ the relations of duty gives over
a spirit equally earnest to seek the right alone.

In time there comes a change, almost imperceptibly, working from within
outwards, first clearly announced through the changed relations of others
to him, though these are but symptomatic of change within himself. The
political strength of his sway is broken, its moral strength is all but
gone. The nature of the change in himself he unwittingly defines in
those last words to Romola already quoted, "The cause of _my party_ is
the cause of God's kingdom." Variou