“And first, it is needful, Most Holy Father, that I should say to you somewhat of myself.  My name has probably reached your ears, but accompanied by all the calumnies, by all the errors, by all the foolish conjectures, which the police, by system, and many men of my party through want of knowledge or poverty of intellect, have heaped upon it.  I am not a subverter, nor a communist, nor a man of blood, nor a hater, nor intolerant, nor exclusive adorer of a system, or of a form imagined by my mind.  I adore God, and an idea which seems to me of God,—­Italy an angel of moral unity and of progressive civilization for the nations of Europe.  Here and everywhere I have written the best I know how against the vices of materialism, of egotism, of reaction, and against the destructive tendencies which contaminate many of our party.  If the people should rise in violent attack against the selfishness and bad government of their rulers, I, while rendering homage to the right of the people, shall be among the first to prevent the excesses and the vengeance which long slavery has prepared.  I believe profoundly in a religious principle, supreme above all social ordinances; in a divine order, which we ought to seek to realize here on earth; in a law, in a providential design, which we all ought, according to our powers, to study and to promote.  I believe in the inspiration of my immortal soul, in the teaching of Humanity, which shouts to me, through the deeds and words of all its saints, incessant progress for all through, the work of all my brothers toward a common moral amelioration, toward the fulfilment of the Divine Law.  And in the great history of Humanity I have studied the history of Italy, and have found there Rome twice directress of the world,—­first through the Emperors, later through the Popes.  I have found there, that every manifestation of Italian life has also been a manifestation of European life; and that always when Italy fell, the moral unity of Europe began to fall apart in analysis, in doubt, in anarchy.  I believe in yet another manifestation of the Italian idea; and I believe that another European world ought to be revealed from the Eternal City, that had the Capitol, and has the Vatican.  And this faith has not abandoned me ever, through years, poverty, and griefs which God alone knows.  In these few words lies all my being, all the secret of my life.  I may err in the intellect, but the heart has always remained pure.  I have never lied through fear or hope, and I speak to you as I should speak to God beyond the sepulchre.

“I believe you good.  There is no man this day, I will not say in Italy, but in all Europe, more powerful than you; you then have, most Holy Father, vast duties.  God measures these according to the means which he has granted to his creatures.