_Towards a more Glorious Destiny._ And millions of eyes, many of them malicious, and millions of men, many of them beyond our frontiers, will be looking at us. They will want to see how we are organised, how justice is administered in the Fascista State, how honest people are protected, how we deal with the problems of the school and the army. And the wrong-doing of any man, his error and his shame will react upon the whole organisation of the State and of necessity upon Fascismo. Have you, my friends, realised how formidable is the task which awaits you? Are you spiritually prepared for it? Do you think that enthusiasm alone is enough?—because it is not enough. It is necessary, because it is a primitive and fundamental force in human nature, it is impossible to do anything not inspired by intense passion or religious mysticism; but that is not enough. Together with these must work the reasoning forces of the brain. I think that in the case of a general crisis Fascismo would have all that was necessary to impose itself and to govern, not according to the ideas of demagogism, but according to the ideas of justice. And then, by ruling the nation well, by leading her towards a more glorious destiny, by conciliating the interests of all classes without increasing the hatred of one and the selfishness of another, by uniting the Italian people to face the world-task, by fulfilling with patience this hard and cyclopean task, we shall inaugurate, thus, a really great period in Italian history. Thus will our dead be made immortal and their names written in the gold book of the Fascista aristocracy. We shall point them out to the rising generation, to the children who are growing up and who represent the eternal spring of life. We shall say: “Great was the effort and hard the sacrifice, and pure was the blood that was shed; and it was not shed to safeguard the interests of individuals, class or caste, it was not shed in the name of materialism, it was shed in the name of an ideal, of all that is most noble, beautiful and generous in the human soul.” With the example of our dead before you, I ask you to remember to be worthy of their sacrifice and to examine daily your own activity. Friends, I have faith in you. You have faith in me. In this mutual trust is the guarantee and certainty of our victory. Long live Italy! Long live Fascismo! Honour and glory to the martyrs of our cause! (Loud applause.) “THE MOMENT HAS ARRIVED WHEN THE ARROW MUST LEAVE THE BOW OR THE CORD WILL BREAK!” Speech delivered at Naples, 26th October 1922.