54 
JOSEPH MAZZINI, 
THE. PROPHET. OF MODERN JDAly 
By THOS. CROSSLAND, B.Sc. October 16th, 1906. 
The essayist opened by paying a tribute to the influence of 
Italy on the world’s history, remarking that the land which 
had produced, among others, such men as Michael Angelo and 
Dante, Savonarola and Galileo, Columbus and Garibaldi must 
always possess a great charm for those interested in the world’s 
culture and progress. The chequered career of the Italian 
people from the time of the Cesars to the Napoleonic wars was 
briefly alluded to. Divided into various petty states, under 
ducal, princely, and papal control, Italy was then merely “a 
geographical expression,’ possessing none of those bonds 
which unite distant parts of the same territory into a nation- 
ality. The influence of Austria was always on the side of the 
despotic and tyrannical rulers whenever the people attempted, 
by armed revolt or public protest, to usher in a period of con- 
stitutional reform. 
The conquest by Napoleon and the union of the various 
kingdoms, dukedoms, and republics into the Republic (and 
later the Kingdom) of Italy, gave to the Italians of that 
time their first practical experience of political unity. Though 
the Congress of Vienna, following on the overthrow of Napoleon, 
restored the status quo, replaced the old tyrants, and Austria’s 
hold on the peninsula, by appropriating to her the republics of 
Genoa and Venice, yet the Italians had learnt that unity was 
possible. From this time onwards all reformers aimed at 
an amalgamation of the various portions of the Italian Penin- 
sula, and to Joseph Mazzini more than to any other of his 
countrymen belongs the honour of the final realisation of this 
dream. 
Born on June 22nd, 1805, in that city of ancient renown, 
Genoa, he early showed signs of that passionate love for his 
own country, and humanity in general, which was the master 
passion of his life. His father was a distinguished professor 
of anatomy in the University of Genoa and his mother a 
woman beautiful alike in person and in character. 
As a child Mazzini was physically weak and mentally pre- 
cocious, and his early years were closely guarded by his parents. 
The first time he passed the precincts of the parental roof, at 
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