ly to] bless Him who works
through you and in your name. Gather round you those who best represent
the national party. Do not beg alliances with princes. Say, 'The unity
of Italy ought to be a fact of the nineteenth century,' and it will
suffice. Leave our pens free; leave free the circulation of ideas in
what regards this point, vital for us, of the national unity."

Here follow some special directions with regard to the several powers
to be dealt with in the projected unification. The result of all this,
foreseen by Mazzini, would be the foundation of "a government unique in
Europe, which shall destroy the absurd divorce between spiritual and
temporal power, and in which you shall be chosen to represent the
principle of which the men chosen by the nation will make the
application."

"The unity of Italy," says Mazzini, "is a work of God. It will be
fulfilled, with you or without you. But I address you because I believe
you worthy to take the initiative in a work so vast; ... because the
revival of Italy, under the aegis of a religious idea of a standard, not
of rights, but of duties, would leave behind all the revolutions of
other countries, and place her immediately at the head of European
progress."

Pure and devout as are the sentiments uttered in this letter, the views
which accompany them have been shown, by subsequent events, to be only
partially just, only partially realizable. The unification of Italy may
to-day be called "a work of God;" but had it been accomplished on the
theocratic basis imagined by Mazzini, it could not have led either
Europe or Italy itself to the point now reached through manifold
endeavor and experience. Spirits may be summoned from the upper air as well
as from the "vasty deep," but they will not come until the time is ripe
for their work. And yet are prayer and prophecy of this sort sacred and
indispensable functions in the priesthood of ideas.

On March 29, 1848, Margaret is able to praise once more the beauty of
the scene around her:--

"Now the Italian heavens wear again their deep blue. The sun is
glorious, the melancholy lustres are stealing again over the Campagna,
and hundreds of larks sing unwearied above its ruins. Nature seems in
sympathy with the great events that are transpiring."

What were these events, which, Margaret says, stunned her by the
rapidity and grandeur of their march?

The face of Italy was changed indeed. Sicily was in revolt, Naples in
revolution.