The individual first
inwardly casts off the authority of a State which, as a fact, is in
most cases tyrannical and illegitimate, and what he thinks and does is,
rightly or wrongly, now called treason. The sight of victorious egotism
in others drives him to defend his own right by his own arm. And, while
thinking to restore his inward equilibrium, he falls, through the
vengeance which he executes, into the hands of the powers of darkness.
His love, too, turns mostly for satisfaction to another individuality
equally developed, namely, to his neighbor's wife. In face of all
objective facts, of laws and restraints of whatever kind, he retains
the feeling of his own sovereignty, and in each single instance forms
his decision independently, according as honour or interest, passion or
calculation, revenge or renunciation, gain the upper hand in his own
mind.
If therefore egotism in its wider as well as narrower sense is the root
and fountain of all evil, the more highly developed Italian was for
this reason more inclined to wickedness than the members of other
nations of that time.
But this individual development did not through any fault of his own,
but rather through necessity. It did not come upon him alone, but also,
and chiefly, by means of Italian culture, upon the other nations of
Europe, and has constituted since then the higher atmosphere which they
breathe.
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