One of the points on which this penetrating and far seeing man had most emphatically insisted was that the vague idealism which swept over some European artistic centres during the last century was alien to the Italian mind. The assertions that he met with from many quarters as to the impossibility of the artist’s realising his ideal was treated by him as exotic nonsense. An ineffable poem is not a poem at all, a harmony defying expression is not a harmony at all, a vision transcending colours and lines, shadow and light is not a vision at all. Italians had to be reminded of the necessity of being realistic; their greatness as well as the greatness of ancient Rome had always rested upon a sound sense of the relation between means and end. He described the Italian genius as a disposition rather to identify the end and means than to fit the end to the means. He enforced this claim, not only for artistic creation, but for historical researches or theoretical speculation as well. He had evidently realised the short-comings of men such as Gioberti and Rosmini. It was much better to start on particular problems with an adequate preparation, and develop them into speculative theories, than to start with an indifferent preparation on vital questions and come to inadequate conclusions. Now if there could be in history such a thing as good luck, the friendship of Croce and Gentile, their flourishing at the same time, could be considered the most wonderful piece of good luck for Italy. By luck, however, we usually mean a certain combination of circumstances escaping our attention. Moreover, their being contemporaries of Mussolini, the _one_ man fit to create a political world capable of bringing into living reality their most difficult conceptions—very often, in fact generally, without knowing anything of their theories—is a sufficient proof that there is no possibility here of invoking luck as an explanation of the concomitance of Croce’s and Gentile’s activity with that of Mussolini. It is much nearer to historical truth to state that Italy has reached one of those stages of her history in which she has always yielded a rich harvest of men of genius, speculative, political or artistic. Any and every practical activity, says Croce, implies theoretical activity, since no action can be performed without knowledge. This however is not to be separated from the action; for the two forms of the spirit are distinct, not separate. Thus in any action, while the practical activity is explicit, the theoretical activity which is knowledge is implicit; in fact they are _concomitant_. The man of thought can no more think than walk without using his will; the importance of the will is just as great for the thinker or the artist as it is for the so-called practical man. But it is only through the wearing of the Pragmatist’s blinkers that one can be brought to see in the will the root of truth.