But those deeply serious and sorrowful appeals to
national sentiment were not heard again till later, when the time for
unity had gone by, when the country was inundated with Frenchmen and
Spaniards. The sense of local patriotism may be said in some measure to
have taken the place of this feeling, though it was but a poor
equivalent for it.
Part Two
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIVIDUAL
Personality
In the character of these States, whether republics or despotisms,
lies, not the only, but the chief reason for the early development of
the Italian. To this it is due that he was the firstborn among the sons
of modern Europe.
In the Middle Ages both sides of human consciousness--that which was
turned within as that which was turned without-- lay dreaming or half
awake beneath a common veil. The veil was woven of faith, illusion, and
childish prepossession, through which the world and history were seen
clad in strange hues. Man was conscious of himself only as a member of
a race, people, party, family, or corporation--only through some
general category. In Italy this veil first melted into air; an
_objective _treatment and consideration of the State and of all the
things of this world became possible. The subjective side at the same
time asserted itself with corresponding emphasis; man became a
spiritual _individual, _recognized himself as such.
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