A few hours after this paper will have reached your hands, my readers,
you will hear, in the morning air a sound from afar, or perhaps near,
a light and touching sound. And even if in that moment you are quite
taken up by thoughts of interest and pleasure, by the cares of a long
day, you will start, and a whole crowd of remembrances, perhaps of
hopes, will spring out from your heart living in the past, and filled
with illusions. Thus the Easter bells, those which Wolfgang Goethe, the
poet of poets loved and exalted, those which touched the heart of old
Faust, the Easter bells, grave and soft at the same time, will tell you
that a whole anniversary of sorrow has started and closed, and that
a new spring, spring of triumph has appeared in a glory of light and
perfumes, in the large and pure horizons where the spirits live. Never
before as in this year did the holy week look so dark and sad to all
hearts, for it was marred by the desperate cry of those who ran away
under the shower of burning stones, by the missing of many frightened
children, under the black threatening sky full of flashes and
lightnings. Never before as in this week, the ancient prodigies which
surrounded with their frightful expression the death of Christ, the
flaming sky, the trembling earth, the torn veil from the Temple, seemed
to repeat themselves in all their terrible truth. And never before
as in this year, the heart of all Christians wished ardently, through
their warmest prayers, that these sad days should pass quickly away,
and that resurrection of life, peace, serenity and joy should console
human beings from the deep and terrible things they had experienced.
How much sweeter, this morning, in the distance, will these Easter
bells ring for us all, announcing to us, as a particular grace, the end
of a conflagration that has troubled us so much, and brought so many
bitter tears to our eyes. Resurrection to-day will mean also in its
symbolic and yet real language, the end of a week of passion and death,
the end of a spiritual and material tragedy which has twice oppressed
our tired and worn out souls: resurrection to-day with its slow and
subtle bell-sound will mean, to those who were agonising with dread
the return of life.
*
* *
Well let us live again! Let this palpitating city undertake once more
its works, its fatigues, its industries, all kind of business, all
light-houses of progress: and from its hills, green in their spring
dress, not withstanding its Vesuvian cinders to its sea so wonderfully
calm, in these days let Naples live again its magnificent life!--In
every order of things let the almost dead organism resuscitate: from
the offices to the theatres, from the churches to the schools from the
banks to the tribunals, from art places to worldly centers, let Naples
resuscitate from its week of passion and death.
Let the existence of six hundred thousand inhabitants proclaim its
rights, reacting against a mortal depression, and let, in fact,
existence conquer in a better way the incommensurable damages of this
week of passion and death. Ah no! don't let us forget from one day
to the other this terrible cataclysm which only yesterday made us
tremble, and the traces of which will never, be effaced again. Don't
let us forget the dead who slept in that tremendous night, and the
living who were deprived of their roofs, bread and clothes.--But in
order to exercise the most efficacious discipline in order to be of
some relief to the hundred and fifty thousand unfortunate ones of the
Vesuvian communities, let us live again, let us think, let us wish,
act, and work. Let the authorities help with wisdom and generosity this
new life of Naples, making away with all prohibitions, making easy
all difficulties of this crisis; untangling one by one, all the knots
which obstructed our movements; and let every single citizen develope
all their activity, without obstacles, without any stumbling stones.
Let beautiful Naples resuscitate from this day, in all its beauty,
goodness, and strength, this unfortunate city which has had its night
of Chetsemane, sweating blood, but is now a stronger, younger and
greater conqueror.
Let us live again for our country for our families, and for ourselves.
Let us live again that we may help all our unfortunate brothers to
live anew: let us live again in the fervor of actions in the ardor of
will towards a great good, not only in ourselves not around us only,
but beside ourselves and much farther, towards all those who suffered
unjustly and cruelly. The sad trial is finished: the hour of suffering
is gone! our soul has been soothed. Let us all live again: let us each
live for the other! and all for all.
April 14th 1906.