Finally, there are the saints, the men who live solely for high purposes and to whom the revolution is a veritable apostolate. They rank high above the mass of mankind, from whom they are frequently distinguished by a singular beauty of countenance, recalling ancient paintings of holy men. They are consumed by a passion for altruism and self-immolation, and experience a strange delight in martyrdom for their ideals. These men sweep the masses along with them and lead to victory with their propaganda, their inspired songs, and thrilling accents. Tyrtæus was not the only poet who led soldiers to war: every insurrection has had its own songs, in which the love of a whole people is crystallised.
Lunatics, unbalanced individuals, and saints are the promoters of progress and revolutions. These types have one thing in common—their passionate devotion to a sublime ideal and their love for humanity, which torments and crushes them in every case where they fail to attain that for which they have fought. But whether victorious or defeated, on the throne or on the scaffold, their efforts are not lost. Love is the spiritual sun of mankind. A ray shed by a human heart may spread far and wide, traversing unknown regions and sojourning with unknown races; and if powerless to revive some timid flower that has been numbed by the chilly night, it may still be stored up in the songs of a people, like the sunlight in green plants, to be retransformed at some future time into light and warmth.
V
Too Soon! (Troppo Presto!)
(A Criticism of the New Italian Penal Code)
In this book, which was written during the interval between the publication of the new Penal Code and its sanction by the Italian Parliament, my father makes a rapid criticism of the Code, which he considered premature. Only a few decades had elapsed since the proclamation of Italian Unity; and the widely differing races that people the provinces constituting the kingdom of Italy had not been able in that brief period to acquire sufficient uniformity of customs to make a single code of laws desirable.
But the book is not merely a criticism. It also contains an exposition of the fundamental principles that, according to my father, should underlie every serious and efficacious code of laws. It is this part that makes this somewhat hastily written book of such importance to criminologists; because it sets forth under the chief heads the juridical desiderata of the New School.
The following brief extract gives an indication of the nature of these principles:
1. The legislation of a country should always be regulated by the customs of the people whom it is to govern; and although a system of different penal codes to suit the varying races and customs in the different regions of one State may offer certain disadvantages, they are always of less importance than the difficulties caused by a uniform code.
2. The object of every code should be the attainment of social safety, not the careful weighing of guilt and individual responsibility. The worst and most dangerous criminals should be treated with the greatest severity; but indulgence should be shown towards minor offenders. The former should be segregated for life in prisons or asylums; the latter should never be allowed to become acquainted with prison life, but should be corrected by means of other penalties, which would not bring them into contact with true criminals, nor necessitate their temporary retirement from civil life.