How characteristic it is of our poor little country that we always hear
and read of it as "one of the oldest kingdoms in the world." That is
just the pity of it. If we were only a young country! There is only one
way by which we can rejuvenate ourselves. First, to merge ourselves into
a Scandinavia; then, when this is well done and well secured, to
approach the Anglo-Saxon race to which we are akin. Moral: Become an
Anglo-Saxon and study John Stuart Mill!
And I studied Mill with persevering attention, where he was difficult,
but instructive, to follow, as in the _Examination of Hamilton's
Philosophy_, which renews Berkeley's teachings, and I read him with
delight where, accessible and comprehensible, he proclaims with
freshness and vigour the gospel of a new age, as in the book _On
Liberty_ and the one akin to it, _Representative Government_.
II
During the months of February and March, my conversations with Giuseppe
Saredo had been all I lived for. We discussed all the questions which
one or both of us had at heart, from the causes of the expansion of
Christianity, to the method of proportionate representation which Saredo
knew, and correctly traced back to Andrae. When I complained that, by
reason of our different nationality, we could hardly have any
recollections in common, and by reason of our different languages, could
never cite a familiar adage from childhood, or quote a common saying
from a play, that the one could not thoroughly enjoy the harmony of
verses in the language of the other, Saredo replied: "You are no more a
Dane than I am an Italian; we are compatriots in the great fatherland of
the mind, that of Shakespeare and Goethe, John Stuart Mill, Andrae, and
Cavour.
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