He plunged again into business. He had noted three men for a
purpose. Archbishop Ilario della Valla was a young and exquisitely
polished prelate, son of an ambassador, thoroughly expert in the
English language and habit. Signor Gargouille Grice was one of those
nondescripts devoid of Divine Vocation, who fondly are believed to
occupy an important place at the pontifical court, (equivalent at least
to the English office of Lord Chamberlain) but, which in reality is
that of a flunkey. Prince Guido Attendolo was a young Italian of very
generous birth, who, as younger son of a younger son not over-burdened
with wealth, led an inconspicuous impotent uninteresting life. With
the idea of giving these three a chance, the Pope dispatched them to
America with the red hat for the American Archbishop Erin, whom He
named Cardinal-presbyter of the Title of St. Mary-of-the-People. It
was merely an incident, intended to keep them from stagnation, to give
them that scope which human nature must have if it is to do itself
justice, if it is not to become a public nuisance. At the same time, He
was satisfied that the sympathy of the prelate, the antiquity of the
decurial chamberlain, and the urbanity (to say nothing of the perfect
Greek profile) of the prince, would recommend them as ambassadors
from the oldest power to the newest nation. On the arrival of the
Apostolic Ablegate in New York, Hadrian published the _Epistle to the
Americans_. He praised their exuberant vigour and individualistic
unconventionality, while He warned them of their obligations to their
race and of the evils of oligarchical tyranny. He begged them not to
live in the desperate hurry which was instanced in their carelessness
in details. He advised them not to be too proud to learn from the
history of other nations, dwelling on the principle of the intermittent
tendency of human nature. He pointed out that, as effect is due to
cause, and as the scope and quantity of human ideas is very far from
being illimitable, so, as human types recur, human ideas and the
situations produced by them are bound to recur. "Yet," He continued,
"human nature itself, when inspired by Divine Grace, being so very
fine and so very potent a force, is capable of immense development.
It has Will, Free-will, which, rightly directed can rule itself, can
control natural laws, can dispose events." Wherefore, He admonished the
Americans to divest themselves of juvenile arrogance and selfishness,
in order that (having learned the causes which produce effects) they
might know the rules and play the game. He spoke to them, not only with
the authority of His apostolature, but with the affection of a comrade
who wished to serve them from the experience (inherited and acquired)
of a member of the older nations. He concluded with delicious slyness,
"The young ones think the old are fools: the old ones know the young
ones are."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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