During the months of February and March, my conversations with Giuseppe
Saredo had been all I lived for. We discussed all the questions which
one or both of us had at heart, from the causes of the expansion of
Christianity, to the method of proportionate representation which
Saredo knew, and correctly traced back to Andrae. When I complained
that, by reason of our different nationality, we could hardly have any
recollections in common, and by reason of our different languages,
could never cite a familiar adage from childhood, or quote a common
saying from a play, that the one could not thoroughly enjoy the harmony
of verses in the language of the other, Saredo replied: "You are no
more a Dane than I am an Italian; we are compatriots in the great
fatherland of the mind, that of Shakespeare and Goethe, John Stuart
Mill, Andrae, and Cavour. This land is the land of humanity.
Nationality is milk, humanity is cream. What is there in all the world
that we have not in common? It is true that we cannot enjoy together
the harmony of some Northern verses, but we can assimilate together all
the great ideas, and we have for each other the attraction of the
relatively unknown, which fellow-countrymen have not."
He very acutely characterised his Italian compatriots: "Our
intelligence amounts to prudence and common sense. At a distance we may
appear self-luminous; in reality we are only passivity and reflected
light. Solferino gave us Lombardy, Sadowa gave us Venice, Sedan gave us
Rome. We were just active enough to take advantage of fortunate
circumstances, and passively clever enough not to wreck our advantage
by stupidity. In foreign novels we are scoundrels of the deepest dye,
concocters of poisons and wholesale swindlers. In reality we are
indifferent and indolent. _Dolce far niente_, these words, which, to
our shame, are repeated in every country in Italian, are our watchword.
But things shall be different, if it means that the few amongst us who
have a little share of head and heart have to work themselves to
death--things shall be different. Massimo d'Azeglio said: 'Now we have
created an Italy; there remains to create Italians.' That was a true
saying. Now we are creating the new people, and what a future there is
before us! Now it is we who are taking the leadership of the Latin
race, and who are giving back to our history its brilliance of the
sixteenth century. At present our Art is poor because we have no
popular type; but wait! In a few years Italy will show a profile no
less full of character than in the days of Michael Angelo, and
Benvenuto Cellini."