INTRODUCTION
man as an individual is replaced in him by patient trust in the power which produces, controls, and finally abolishes that individual when its purpose is accomplished. His religious attitude has been compared with that of Chateaubriand and Lamartine, but he is far less concerned with the aesthetic aspect of faith than either of the French writers. In his serene sense of the reality of life and his complete freedom from all affectation he is the worthy successor of Parini, and the unforced eloquence of his lyrics is extraordinarily fine.
Of the many patriotic poets who watched the dawn of the Risorgimento with mingled hopes and fears Giusti is the most remarkable. He discards the stereotyped forms of satire, and writes in the popular language of Tuscany, but these innovations in no way impair the ironical power of his invective. He has that first necessity of the satirist, the gift of personal detachment, the capacity of keeping his temper, which Alfieri often lacked; he can be at once completely serious and gaily humorous; he sees life steadily, and his hatred of the foreign tyrants never blinds him to certain grave defects in his own countrymen. After reading his energetic verse it is impossible not to feel a keen regret that he never saw the triumph of freedom, but died soon after the reverse of Novara had apparently ruined the hopes of Italy.
Of Leopardi, the one great modern Italian poet whose work is well known in England, it would be superfluous to write in detail. With him the lyric reaches a climax of beauty never attained since Petrarch, a perfect union of idea and expression that forbids all analysis. He has been solemnly rebuked for wilfully ‘living in sadness’, for
