Against the classical, not to say pagan, leanings of these two poets, a reaction set in with Alessandro Manzoni, the founder of Italian Romanticism, to which he gave an aspect differing from that which the same movement wore in France, because he was an ardent Catholic at a time when Christianity had almost the charm of novelty.  His religious outpourings combine the fervour of the Middle Ages with modern expansion, and he freed the Italian language from pedantic restrictions without impairing its dignity.  It was once the fashion to inveigh against Manzoni for, as it was said, inculcating resignation; but he did nothing of the kind.  As a young man he had sung of the Italians as ‘Figli tutti d’un solo Riscatto,’ and though he was not of those who fight either with the sword or the pen, yet that ‘Riscatto’ was the dream of his youth and manhood, and the joy of his old age.  His gentleness was never contaminated by servility, and the love for his country, profound if placid, which appears in every line of his writings, appealed to a class that could not be reached by fiery turbulence of thought.

In an age when newspapers have taken the place of books, it may seem strange to ascribe any serious effect to the works of poets and romancists; but in the Italy of that date there were no newspapers to speak of; the ordinary channels of opinion were blocked up.  Books were still not only read, but discussed and thought over, and every slight allusion to the times was instantly applied.  In the prevailing listlessness, the mere fact of increased mental activity was of importance.  A spark of genius does much to raise a nation.  It is in itself the incontrovertible proof that the race lives:  a dead people does not produce men of genius.  Whatever awakes one part of the intelligence reacts on all its parts.  You cannot lift, any more than you can degrade, the heart of man piecemeal.  In this sense not literature only but also music helped, who can say how effectually, to bring Italy back to life.  The land was refreshed by a flood of purely national song, full of the laughter and the tears of Italian character, of the sunshine and the storms of Italian nature.  Music, the only art uncageable as the human soul, descended as a gift from heaven upon the people whose articulate utterance was stifled.  And

   ...  No speech may evince
  Feeling like music.

CHAPTER II

THE WORK OF THE CARBONARI

1815-1821

Revolutions in the Kingdom of Naples and in Piedmont—­The Conspiracy against Charles Albert.