This text is part of:
1 Count Cesare Balbo, the writer of the following letters, whose character and talents had attached and interested Mr. Ticknor,2 had been already, in early youth, during Napoleon's government of Italy, put forward in public affairs, and had shown great precocity and ability. He afterwards passed through severe trials, both public and private, suffering much from the weakness and injustice of the princes of his native country. Nevertheless, when in 1847 the goal of his desires for the independence and unity of Italy seemed for a moment almost within reach, he threw himself into the forefront of the conflict, served Charles Albert faithfully as his Prime Minister, sent five sons to the army,—where one of them was killed in battle,—and proved, by his Whole course of action, the sincerity and disinterestedness of the political views he had always urged upon his countrymen. During a period of forced inaction, in middle life, he devoted himself to literature, and is widely known by his ‘Vita di Dante,’ as well as by his ‘Speranze d'italia,’ and other political writings. He was born in 1789 and died in 1853, leaving a name honored throughout Italy, and distinguished in the cultivated circles of all Europe. Though his correspondence with Mr. Ticknor ceased before very long, yet their affection for each other did not diminish, and in 1836 they met like brothers, and were much together in Turin, and in Paris two years later.
1 The Duke de Laval died at the age of seventy, three months before Mr. Ticknor reached Paris in 1837, so that they never met again.
2 See ante, pp. 210, 212, 213.
3 Translated from the Italian.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.