An Italian Pessimist [pp. 296-315]

1884.J AK ITALfAK P~ssjMis~. 303
vellous erudition, there was yet wanting the stir and movement
of modern intellectual life; he must be brought in contact with
the spirit of the day, must know those who were moulding and
shaping the busy present. To accomplish this there was but
one way: since there was no hope of his going forth to claim his
rightful place in the world of mind, he would send out his voice
from the retreat to which fate condemned him, and men should
listen and respond. At the age of sixteen years he had completed
a Latin translation of Porphyry's H~~ Hk~TiYov Biov, with commentary-so remarkable a production that Fried rich Creuzer, the
eminent philologist of Heidelberg, availed himself of it to a considerable extent in the addenda to the third volume of his own
edition of Plotinus: "Liti qiti a travaitij lonte sa vie sur Plotin, ii
trot~ve quelqae ckose d'ulile dans 1'ouvrage d'unje~ne /~ornme de seize
ans. * The pride and pleasure of Count Monaldo in thi~ effort
of his son are shown by his having wntten with his own hand
at the beginning of the manuscript these words: "Oggi 3' agosto
1814, questo 5110 lavoro mi dono Ciacomo mio primogenito figilo, cite
non ka avuto maestro di lingua greca, ed e in eta di anni i6, mesi due,
giorni due. -Monaldo Leopardi." t That he loved the boy, and that
he would have gladly aided hiin where conscience could approve,
is as certain as that he continually sought to restrain him from
evil. For while the studies of Giacomo were in nowise interfered with and he was apparently left to himself, it is evident
that there was no lack of interest or of oversight on the part
of his father. That the son, in his jealous self-assertion, resented
such oversight as arbitrary and tyrannical is to be perceived at
a glance from the tenor of his letters to Giordani, to whom he
wrote perhaps with more frankness upon personal matters than
to any one. Indeed, the utter untruthfulness of his nature is
nowhere more apparent than in his correspondence. His pretence of respect and dutiful submission to his father while he
was pouring out his wrath and contempt to his friend, and more
especially the assumption of religious fervor in writing to the
count at the very time that he was directing every energy to
overthrow the foundations of Christian faith, asserting over and
over his entire disbelief in the truths of revelation, should be
enough to cast discredit upon any representation of his regarding
the conduct of Count Monaldo. His letter to his sister Paolina,
* Sainte-Beuve, Portraits Contemporains, vol. iii. p. 74. "He, who had wrought all his
life upon Plotinus, found something useful in the work of a youth of sixteen years."
t "On this 31st August, 1814, my first horn son, Giacomo, gave to me this work of his, who
has had no instructor in the Greek language, and is now aged sixteen years, two months, aud
two days.-Mo~~~oo LEop~aoi."