106 ITALY 



from elsewhere, and although in certain respects 

 she may not yet have carried those ideas so far 

 as other countries have done, her national genius 

 has shown itself in the skilful, if not thoroughly 

 statesmanlike, manner in which the pioneers of 

 the revival have woven into one complete 

 system what are elsewhere still mostly a series 

 of isolated efforts and sectional aspirations. In 

 this way there has been secured in Italy com- 

 plete unity of conception in a well-conceived, 

 though many-sided, general scheme of organiza- 

 tion which, complex though it be, is essentially 

 harmonious in its scope and operation. Neither 

 in Germany nor in France, neither in Denmark 

 nor in Belgium, is there to be found that " funda- 

 mental idea " which in Italy has brought about 

 the co-ordination of all parties and all interests 

 for the achievement in various, but strictly 

 interdependent, ways of a common purpose — 

 the progress, that is to say, not alone of agricul- 

 ture or of industry, of the masses or the classes, 

 but of the national well-being as a whole. 



The first of the main principles upon which 

 the so-called " Italian system " thus brought 

 about has proceeded is that thrift should receive 

 every possible encouragement among the people, 

 not only because it is a virtue and a material 

 advantage in itself, but also because the savings 



