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43 - Worlds Famous Orations - Continental Europe by William Jennings Bryan · Worlds Famous Orations - Continental Europe

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  Speaker 1: Section forty three of the World's Famous Orations, Volume seven,
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  Speaker 1: Continental Europe. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
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  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. The World's Famous Orations, Volume seven,
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  Speaker 1: Continental Europe by William Jennings Bryan, Section forty three, Part four.
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  Speaker 1: Italy Massini to the Young Men of Italy eighteen forty
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  Speaker 1: eight born in eighteen o five, died in eighteen seventy two,
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  Speaker 1: Arrested in eighteen thirty, but released for want of evidence
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  Speaker 1: to secure conviction, lived abroad and conducted agitations for the
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  Speaker 1: liberation of Italy in eighteen forty eight, returned to become
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  Speaker 1: a member of the short lived Triumvirate, organized insurrections afterward,
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  Speaker 1: but played a subordinate part in the unification effected under
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  Speaker 1: Victor Emmanuel. In eighteen sixty one, when I was commissioned
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  Speaker 1: by you young men to proffer in this temple a
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  Speaker 1: few words consecrated to the memory of the brothers Bandiera
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  Speaker 1: and their fellow martyrs at Cosenza, I thought some of
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  Speaker 1: those who heard me might perhaps exclaim, with noble indignation,
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  Speaker 1: why thus lament over the dead. The martyrs of liberty
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  Speaker 1: can be worthily honored only by winning the battle they
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  Speaker 1: began Cosenza. The land where they fell is enslaved Venice.
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  Speaker 1: The city of their birth is begirt with strangers. Let
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  Speaker 1: us emancipate them, and until that moment, let no words
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  Speaker 1: pass our lips, save those of war. But another thought
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  Speaker 1: arose and suggested to me the inquiry, why have we
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  Speaker 1: not conquered? Why is it that while our countrymen are
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  Speaker 1: fighting for independence in the north, liberty is perishing in
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  Speaker 1: the south. Why is it that a war which should
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  Speaker 1: have sprung to the Alps with the bound of a lion,
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  Speaker 1: has dragged itself along for four months, with the slow,
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  Speaker 1: uncertain motion of the scorpion, surrounded by a circle of fire.
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  Speaker 1: How has the rapid and powerful intuition have a people
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  Speaker 1: newly arisen to life been converted into the weary, helpless
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  Speaker 1: effort of a sick man turning from side to side. Ah,
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  Speaker 1: Had we all arisen strong in the sanctity of the
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  Speaker 1: idea for which our martyrs died, Had the holy standard
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  Speaker 1: of their faith inspired our youth to battle? Had we
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  Speaker 1: made of our every thought and action, and of our
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  Speaker 1: every action a thought. Had we learned from them that
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  Speaker 1: liberty and independence are won, we should not now have war.
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  Speaker 1: But victory Cosenza would not be compelled to venerate them
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  Speaker 1: memory of her martyrs in secret, nor Venice be restrained
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  Speaker 1: from honoring them with a monument. Here we gathered together
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  Speaker 1: that we might gladly invoke those sacred names, without uncertainty
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  Speaker 1: as to our future destiny, or a cloud of sadness
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  Speaker 1: on our brows, And we might say to those precursor souls, rejoice,
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  Speaker 1: for your spirit is incarnate in your brethren, and they
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  Speaker 1: are worthy of you. Could Attilio and Emilio Bandiera and
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  Speaker 1: their fellow martyrs now rise from the grave and speak
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  Speaker 1: to you, they would believe me address you, though with
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  Speaker 1: a power very different from that which is given to
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  Speaker 1: me in council, not unlike that which I now utter.
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  Speaker 1: Love is the flight of the soul toward God, toward
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  Speaker 1: the Great, the sublime, and the beautiful, which are the
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  Speaker 1: shadows of God upon earth. Love your family, the partner
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  Speaker 1: of your life, those around you ready to share your
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  Speaker 1: joys and sorrows, the dead who were dear to you
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  Speaker 1: and to whom you were dear. Love your country. It
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  Speaker 1: is your name, your glory, your sign among the peoples.
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  Speaker 1: Give to it your thought, your counsel, your blood. You
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  Speaker 1: are twenty four millions of men, endowed with active and
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  Speaker 1: splendid faculties, with the tradition of glory, which is the
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  Speaker 1: envy of the nations of europe An immense future is
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  Speaker 1: before you. Your eyes are raised to the loveliest heaven,
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  Speaker 1: and around you smiles the loveliest land in Europe. You
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  Speaker 1: are encircled by the Alps and the sea, boundaries marked
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  Speaker 1: out by the finger of God for a people of giants,
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  Speaker 1: and you must be such or nothing. Let not a
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  Speaker 1: man of that twenty four millions remain excluded from the
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  Speaker 1: fraternal bond which shall join you together. Let not a
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  Speaker 1: look be raised to Heaven which is not that of
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  Speaker 1: a free man. Love humanity. You can only ascertain your
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  Speaker 1: own mission from the aim placed by God before humanity
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  Speaker 1: at large. Beyond the Alps, beyond the sea are other
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  Speaker 1: people fighting or preparing to fight the holy fight of independence,
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  Speaker 1: of nationality, of liberty, other peoples striving by different routes
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  Speaker 1: to reach the same goal. Unite with them, and they
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  Speaker 1: will unite with you. And young men, love and reverence,
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  Speaker 1: the ideal that is the country of the Spirit, the
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  Speaker 1: city of the soul, in which all are brethren who
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  Speaker 1: believe in the inviolability of thought and in the dignity
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  Speaker 1: of our immortal natures. From that high sphere spring the
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  Speaker 1: principles which alone can redeem peoples. Love, enthusiasm, the pure
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  Speaker 1: dreams of the virgin soul, and the lofty visions of
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  Speaker 1: early youth. For they are the perfume of power paradise,
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  Speaker 1: which the soul preserves in issuing from the hands of
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  Speaker 1: its creator. Respect above all things, your conscience. Have upon
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  Speaker 1: your lips the truth that God has placed in your hearts.
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  Speaker 1: And while working together in harmony in all that tends
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  Speaker 1: to the emancipation of our soil, even with those who
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  Speaker 1: differ from you, yet ever bear erect your own banner
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  Speaker 1: and boldly promulgate your faith. Such words, young men, would
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  Speaker 1: the martyrs of Cosenza, have spoken, had they been living
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  Speaker 1: among you, and here were perhaps invoked by our love.
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  Speaker 1: Their holy spirits hover near us. I call upon you
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  Speaker 1: to gather them up in your hearts, and to make
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  Speaker 1: of them a treasure amid the storms that yet threaten you,
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  Speaker 1: but which with the name of our martyrs on your
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  Speaker 1: lips and their faith in your hearts, you will overcome.
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  Speaker 1: God be with you and bless Italy. End of section
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  Speaker 1: forty three.