I see you have meetings, where you speak of the Italians, the Hungarians.  I pray you do something; let it not end in a mere cry of sentiment.  That is better than to sneer at all that is liberal, like the English,—­than to talk of the holy victims of patriotism as “anarchists” and “brigands”; but it is not enough.  It ought not to content your consciences.  Do you owe no tithe to Heaven for the privileges it has showered on you, for whose achievement so many here suffer and perish daily?  Deserve to retain them, by helping your fellow-men to acquire them.  Our government must abstain from interference, but private action is practicable, is due.  For Italy, it is in this moment too late; but all that helps Hungary helps her also,—­helps all who wish the freedom of men from an hereditary yoke now become intolerable.  Send money, send cheer,—­acknowledge as the legitimate leaders and rulers those men who represent the people, who understand their wants, who are ready to die or to live for their good.  Kossuth I know not, but his people recognize him; Manin I know not, but with what firm nobleness, what perserving virtue, he has acted for Venice!  Mazzini I know, the man and his acts, great, pure, and constant,—­a man to whom only the next age can do justice, as it reaps the harvest of the seed he has sown in this.  Friends, countrymen, and lovers of virtue, lovers of freedom, lovers of truth! be on the alert; rest not supine in your easier lives, but remember

  “Mankind is one,
  And beats with one great heart.”

PART III.

LETTERS FROM ABROAD TO FRIENDS AT HOME.

LETTERS.

FROM A LETTER TO ——­ ——.

Bellagio, Lake of Como, August, 1847.

You do not deceive yourself surely about religion, in so far as that there is a deep meaning in those pangs of our fate which, if we live by faith, will become our most precious possession.  “Live for thy faith and thou shalt yet behold it living,” is with me, as it hath been, a maxim.

Wherever I turn, I see still the same dark clouds, with occasional gleams of light.  In this Europe how much suffocated life!—­a sort of woe much less seen with us.  I know many of the noble exiles, pining for their natural sphere; many of them seek in Jesus the guide and friend, as you do.  For me, it is my nature to wish to go straight to the Creative Spirit, and I can fully appreciate what you say of the need of our happiness depending on no human being.  Can you really have attained such wisdom?  Your letter seemed to me very modest and pure, and I trust in Heaven all may be solid.