"Your monarch and mine are a little bitten by this tarantula.I am concerned for them.We must not pander to the mob's leaders, for they are not, and never have been, the many-headed thing itself.They, not the mob, are 'out to kill,' as you say.But that State will soon perish that thinks to prosper under the rule of the proletariat.Such a constitution would be opposed to natural law and, therefore, contain the seeds of its own dissolution.And its death would be inconceivably horrible; for the death of huge, coarse organisms is always horrible.Only distinguished creatures are beautiful in death, or know how to die like gentlemen.""Who are on your side to-day, siguor?" asked Henry Lennox.
"More than I know, I hope.Gobineau is my lighthouse in the storm.You must read him, if you have not done so.He was the incarnate spirit of the Renaissance.He radiated from his bosom its effulgence and shot it forth, like the light of a pharos over dark waters; he, best of all men, understood it, and, most of all men, mourned to see its bright hope and glory perish out of the earth under the unconquerable superstition of mankind and the lamentable infliction of the Jewish race.Alas!TheJews have destroyed many other things besides the Saviour of us all." They found the Renaissance to be the favorite theme of SignorMannetti.He returned again and again to it, and it was typical of him that he could combine assurances of being a devout Catholic with sentiments purely pagan.
"Christianity has operated in the making of many slaves and charlatans," he said."One mourns the fact, but must be honest.It has too often scourged the only really precious members of society from the temple of life.It has cast the brave and clean and virile into outer darkness, and exalted the staple of humanity, which is never brave, or virile, and seldom really clean.A hideous wave submerges everything that matters.The proud, the beautiful - the only beings that justify the existence of mankind - will soon be on the hills with the hawks and leopards, and hunted like them - outcast, pariah, unwanted, hated.""The spirit of christianity is socialistic, I fear," said Sir Walter."It is one of those things I do not pretend to understand, but the modern clergy speak with a clear voice on the subject.""Do your clergy indeed speak with a clear voice?""They do; and we must, of course, listen.Truth is apt to be painful.And how can we reconcile our aristocratic instincts with our faith? I ask for information and you will forgive the personality.I find myself in almost entire agreement with your noble sentiments.But, as a good Christian, ought I to be so? How do you stand with the one true faith in your heart and these opinions in your head, signor?"The old man twinkled and a boyish smile lighted his aged countenance.
"A good question-a shrewd thrust, Sir Walter.There can be only one answer to that, my friend.With God all things are possible."Henry laughed; his uncle was puzzled.
"You think that is no answer," continued the Italian."But reason also must have a place in the sun, though we have to hide it in our pocket sometimes.So many great men would not extinguish their light - and had it extinguished for them.A difficult subject.Let us continue to think in compartments.It is safer so.If you are over eighty years old, youlove safety.But I love joy and romance also, and is not religion almost the only joy and romance left to us? It is affirmation remember, not negation, that makes the world go round! The 'intellectuals' forget that, and they are sterile accordingly."Signor Mannetti's wits were something too nimble for his hearers.He talked and talked - about everything but the matter in their minds - until half-past ten o'clock, when his man came after him.Thereupon he rose, like an obedient child, and wished them "Good-night.""Stephano is my guardian angel," he said - "a being of painful punctuality.But he adds years to my life.He forgets nothing.I wish you a kind farewell until to-morrow and offer grateful thanks for your welcome.I breakfast in my room, if you please, and shall be ready at eleven o'clock to put myself at your service.Then you will be so gracious as to answer me some questions, and I shall, please God, try to help you."
