_The Dolomites of Italian Thought._ We are proud of being Italians, and not only for reasons of exclusivism. The modern spirit reaches out towards beauty and truth. One cannot think of a modern man who has not read Cervantes, Shakespeare, Goethe and Tolstoy. But all this must not make us forget that we were great when the others were not yet born, that while German Klopstock was writing his verbose _Messiade_, Dante Alighieri had been a giant for centuries. And we have also the sculpture of Michelangelo, the painting of Raffaello, the astronomy of Galileo, and the medicine of Morgagni, and with these the mysterious Leonardo da Vinci who excelled in all fields. And then, if you want to pass to politics and war, there is Napoleon and, above all, Garibaldi, most Italian of all. These are the Dolomites of Italian thought and spirit; but beside these almost inaccessible peaks are lower summits in great numbers, which show that it is quite impossible to think of human civilisation without the gigantic contribution made by Italian thought. And this must be repeated at our boundaries, where there are tribes chattering incomprehensible languages who would pretend, simply on account of their numbers, to supplant our marvellous civilisation which has endured two millenniums and is ready for a third. _The Sincerity of Fascismo._ The second foundation-stone of Fascismo is represented by anti-demagogism and pragmatism. We have no preconceived notions, no fixed ideas and, above all, no stupid pride. Those who say, “You are unhappy, here is the receipt for happiness,” make me think of the advertisement “Do you want health?” We do not promise men happiness either here or in the next world; differing thus from the Socialists, who pretend that they can set the Russian mask on the face of the Mediterranean. Once there were courtiers who burned incense before the king and the popes; now there is a new breed, which burns incense, without sincerity, before the proletariat. Only those who hold Italy in their hands have the right to govern her, they say, while these do not know even how to control their own families. We are different. We use another language, more serious, unprejudiced and worthy of free men. We do not exclude the possibility that the proletariat may be capable of using its present forces to other ends, but we say that before it tries to govern the nation it must learn to govern itself, must make itself worthy, technically and, still more, morally, because government is a tremendously difficult and complicated task. The nation is composed of millions and millions of individuals whose interests clash, and there are no superior beings who can reconcile all these differences and make a union of life and progress.