Greeks and Italians, all that relates to the material foundations
of human existence may be traced back to the same primary elements;
the oldest problems which the world proposes to man had been
jointly solved by the two peoples at a time when they still formed
one nation.


Difference of the Italian and the Greek Character


It was otherwise in the mental domain. The great problem of man--how
to live in conscious harmony with himself, with his neighbour, and
with the whole to which he belongs--admits of as many solutions
as there are provinces in our Father's kingdom; and it is in this,
and not in the material sphere, that individuals and nations display
their divergences of character. The exciting causes which gave
rise to this intrinsic contrast must have been in the Graeco-Italian
period as yet wanting; it was not until the Hellenes and Italians
had separated that that deep-seated diversity of mental character
became manifest, the effects of which continue to the present day.
The family and the state, religion and art, received in Italy and
in Greece respectively a development so peculiar and so thoroughly
national, that the common basis, on which in these respects also
the two peoples rested, has been so overgrown as to be almost
concealed from our view. That Hellenic character, which sacrificed
the whole to its individual elements, the nation to the township,
and the township to the citizen; which sought its ideal of life in
the beautiful and the good, and, but too often, in the enjoyment of
idleness; which attained its political development by intensifying
the original individuality of the several cantons, and at length