Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. 1 (of 2)Holyoake, George Jacob
Philosophy
Bygones Worth Remembering, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Holyoake, George Jacob
Holyoake, George Jacob, 1817-1906; Social reformers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Working class -- Great Britain -- Biography
No one could say of Mazzini that he was a foreigner and did not
understand us, or that the case he put was defective through not
understanding our language. The _Saturday Review_, which agreed with
nobody, said, on reading Mazzini's "Letter to Louis Napoleon," which was
written in English, "The man can write." The finest State papers seen in
Europe for generations were those which Mazzini, when a Triumvir in
Rome, wrote--notably those to De Tocqueville. De Tocqueville had a great
name for political literature, but his icy mystifications melted away
under Mazzini's fiery pen of principle, passion, and truth. This
wandering, homeless, penniless, obscure refugee was a match for kings.
Some day a publisher of insight will bring out a cheap edition of
the five volumes of his works, issued by S. King and Co., 1867, and
"dedicated to the working classes" by P. A. Taylor, which cost him £500,
few then caring for them. Mrs. Emilie Ashurst Venturi was the translator
of the five volumes, which were all revised by Mazzini. The reader
therefore can trust the text.
Mazzini did me the honour of presenting to me his volume on the
"Duties of Man," with this inscription of reserve: "To my friend, G. J.
Holyoake, with a very faint hope." Words delicate, self-respecting and
suggestive. It was hard for me, with my convictions, to accept his great
formula, "God and the People." It was a great regret to me that I could
not use the words. They were honest on the lips of Mazzini. But I had
seen that in human danger Providence procrastinates. No peril stirs it,
no prayer quickens its action. Men perish as they supplicate. In danger
the people must trust in themselves.
Thinking as I did, I could not say or pretend otherwise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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