James Fenimore Cooper The Bravo [txt]

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rest there."
"We will then look freely into the matter of Jacopo Frontoni. There will
be necessity of our assembling in the chamber of the Inquisition, that
we may have the prisoner confronted to his accusers. 'Tis a grave trial,
Signori, and Venice would lose in men's estimation, were not the highest
tribunal to take an interest in its decision."
"To the block with the villain!" again exclaimed the Signor Soranzo.
"He may haply meet with that fate, or even with the punishment of the
wheel. A mature examination will enlighten us much on the course which
policy may dictate."
"There can be but one policy when the protection of the lives of our
citizens is in question. I have never before felt impatience to shorten
the life of man, but in this trial I can scarce brook delay."
"Your honorable impatience shall be gratified, Signor Soranzo: for,
foreseeing the urgency of the case, my colleague, the worthy senator who
is joined with us in this high duty, and myself, have already issued
the commands necessary to that object. The hour is near, and we will
repair to the chamber of the Inquisition in time to our duty."
The discourse then turned on subjects of a more general concern. This
secret and extraordinary tribunal, which was obliged to confine its
meetings to no particular place, which could decide on its decrees
equally in the Piazza or the palace, amidst the revelries of the
masquerade or before the altar, in the assemblies of the gay or in their
own closets, had of necessity much ordinary matter submitted to its
inspection. As the chances of birth entered into its original
composition, and God hath not made all alike fit for so heartless a
duty, it sometimes happened, as in the present instance, that the more
worldly of its members had to overcome the generous disposition of a
colleague, before the action of the terrible machine could go on.
It is worthy of remark, that communities always establish a higher
standard of justice and truth, than is exercised by their individual
members. The reason is not to be sought for, since nature hath left to
all a perception of that right, which is abandoned only under the
stronger impulses of personal temptation. We commend the virtue we
cannot imitate. Thus it is that those countries, in which public opinion
has most influence, are always of the purest public practice. It follows
as a corollary from this proposition, that a representation should be as
real as possible, for its tendency will be inevitably to elevate
national morals. Miserable, indeed, is the condition of that people,
whose maxims and measures of public policy are below the standard of its
private integrity, for the fact not only proves it is not the master of
its own destinies, but the still more dangerous truth, that the
collective power is employed in the fatal service of undermining those
very qualities which are necessary to virtue, and which have enough to
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do, at all times, in resisting the attacks of immediate selfishness. A
strict legal representation of all its interests is far more necessary
to a worldly than to a simple people, since responsibility, which is the
essence of a free government, is more likely to keep the agents of a
nation near to its own standard of virtue than any other means. The
common opinion that a Republic cannot exist without an extraordinary
degree of virtue in its citizens, is so flattering to our own actual
condition, that we seldom take the trouble to inquire into its truth;
but, to us, it seems quite apparent that the effect is here mistaken for
the cause. It is said, as the people are virtually masters in a
Republic, that the people ought to be virtuous to rule well. So far as
this proposition is confined to degrees, it is just as true of a
Republic as of any other form of government. But kings do rule, and
surely all have not been virtuous; and that aristocracies have ruled
with the very minimum of that quality, the subject of our tale
sufficiently shows. That, other things being equal, the citizens of a
Republic will have a higher standard of private virtue than the subjects
of any other form of government, is true as an effect, we can readily
believe; for responsibility to public opinion existing in all the
branches of its administration, that conventional morality which
characterizes the common sentiment, will be left to act on the mass, and
will not be perverted into a terrible engine of corruption, as is the
case when factitious institutions give a false direction to its
influence.
The case before us was in proof of the truth of what has here been said.
The Signor Soranzo was a man of great natural excellence of character,
and the charities of his domestic circle had assisted in confirming his
original dispositions. Like others of his rank and expectations, he had,
from time to time, made the history and polity of the self-styled
Republic his study, and the power of collective interests and specious
necessities had made him admit sundry theories, which, presented in
another form, he would have repulsed with indignation. Still the Signor
Soranzo was far from understanding the full effects of that system
which he was born to uphold. Even Venice paid that homage to public
opinion, of which there has just been question, and held forth to the
world but a false picture of her true state maxims. Still, many of those
which were too apparent to be concealed were difficult of acceptance,
with one whose mind was yet untainted with practice; and the young
senator rather shut his eyes on their tendency, or, as he felt their
influence in every interest which environed him, but that of poor,
neglected, abstract virtue, whose rewards were so remote, he was fain to
seek out some palliative, or some specious and indirect good as the
excuse for his acquiescence.
In this state of mind the Signor Soranzo was unexpectedly admitted a
member of the Council of Three. Often, in the day-dreams of his youth,
had he contemplated the possession of this very irresponsible power as
the consummation of his wishes. A thousand pictures of the good he would
perform had crossed his brain, and it was only as he advanced in life,
and came to have a near view of the wiles which beset the
best-intentioned, that he could bring himself to believe most of that
which he meditated was impracticable. As it was, he entered into the
council with doubts and misgivings. Had he lived in a later age, under
his own system modified by the knowledge which has been a consequence of
the art of printing, it is probable that the Signor Soranzo would have
been a noble in opposition, now supporting with ardor some measure of
public benevolence, and now yielding gracefully to the suggestions of a
sterner policy, and always influenced by the positive advantages he was
born to possess, though scarcely conscious himself he was not all he
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professed to be. The fault, however, was not so much that of the
patrician as that of circumstances, which, by placing interest in
opposition to duty, lures many a benevolent mind into still greater
weaknesses.
The companions of the Signor Soranzo, however, had a more difficult
task to prepare him for the duties of the statesman, which were so very
different from those he was accustomed to perform as a man, than they
had anticipated. They were like two trained elephants of the east,
possessing themselves all the finer instincts and generous qualities of [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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