Thus did moods of joy and despair come and go, till one day, when I was listening to the sounds in a forest, and was still on that day in the early springtide seeking after God in my thoughts, a flash of joy illumined my soul.  I realised that the conception of God was not God Himself.  I felt that I had only truly lived when I believed in God.  God is life.  Live to seek God and life will not be without Him.  The light that then shone never left me.  Thus I was saved from self-destruction.  Gradually I felt the glow and strength of life return to me.  I renounced the life of my own class, because it was unreal, and its luxurious superfluity rendered comprehension of life impossible.  The simple men around me, the working classes, were the real Russian people.  To them I turned.  They made the meaning of life clear.  It may thus be expressed:—­

Each of us is so created by God that he may ruin or save his soul.  To save his soul, a man must live after God’s word by humility, charity, and endurance, while renouncing all the pleasures of life.  This is for the common people the meaning of the whole system of faith, traditionally delivered to them from the past and administered to them by the pastors of the Church.

* * * * *

PASQUALE VILLARI

The Life of Girolamo Savonarola

Pasquale Villari was born October 3, 1827, at Naples.  At the age of twenty he produced his first literary effort, a Liberal manifesto against Neapolitan Bourbonism, which necessitated his flight from his native city.  He retreated to Florence and there wrote his work on “Savonarola,” which at once achieved fame and was translated into French, German, and English.  His next great book was his “Macchiavelli.”  Villari had been appointed Professor of History at Nice, but left that city for a similar position at Florence.  He entered political life in 1862, and has sat as a Parliamentary Deputy several times.  In 1884 he was made senator, and in 1891 he was minister of public instruction in the Rudini Cabinet.  Villari’s essays on Dante are much esteemed.  His treatise on “The First Two Centuries of Florentine History” is considered a standard work.  All his books have been translated into our language by his English wife, Linda Villari, who is herself an accomplished authoress.

I.—­1452-1494

The House of Savonarola derived its ancient origin from the city of Padua.  In the beginning of the fifteenth century the family removed to Ferrara where, on September 21, 1452, the subject of this biography, Girolamo Savonarola, first saw the light.  He was the third of seven children of his parents.  The lad became the favourite of his grandfather, Michele, who wished to see him become a great physician, and devoted most assiduous care on the task of training his intellect.  But unfortunately the grandfather soon passed away, and Girolamo’s studies were then directed by his father, who began to instruct him in philosophy.