§ 239. Domestic Right twofold, conjugal and parental § 240. There may be a general, as well as a special, theory of civil society 377 § 241. The supreme problem of the Science of Right SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ANTONIO ROSMINI. If we consult any of even the most recent general histories of philosophy-for example, those of Schwegler, Erdmann, and Ueberweg-we shall naturally come to the conclusion that, since the days of the Reformation, when Scholasticism fell into disrepute and the apostles of new doctrines, such as Giordano Bruno and Lucilio Vanini, perished at the stake, there has been no philosophy in the Catholic countries, no fresh thought in the Church—indeed, no advance in speculation, except developments of Cartesianism, anywhere. Nevertheless, this is so far from being the case that Italy, the very centre and home of Catholicism, may be safely affirmed to have produced in the last hundred years more solid thought, more thought that will prove a lasting possession, than any other single country in Europe, and to be at the present day the only country blessed with a system of thought that still asserts its ability to furnish a rational basis for life according to the highest ideals. It is, indeed, true that Italy, after the decay of Scholasticism, fell for a time into a condition of philosophic sterility; but this was in large measure compensated for by the scientific labours of such men as Galileo Galilei and Giambattista Vico, each of whom marked an epoch in the study to which he devoted himself. When, in the seventeenth century, philosophy began to revive, it did so in the form of the subjectivism of Descartes and Malebranche and the sensism of Locke and Condillac. Of the two, the latter had by far the greater influence and the larger number of followers. This was due mainly to two circumstances: first, to the long residence of Condillac in Italy, as tutor to Prince Ferdinand of Parma (1758–1768); and, second, to the readiness with which the doctrine itself answered the ends. of the Jesuit school of thought, ever ready to depreciate the powers of human intelligence and to find an excuse for claiming assent to its own incomprehensible dogmas. A third influence which favoured the spread of Condillac's doctrines in Italy was the almost universal popularity which everything of French origin enjoyed in his time. At all events, during the latter half of last century and the first quarter of this, the popular philosophy in Italy was sensism. It found its way into numerous text-books which, through the strong influence of the Jesuits, supplanted the old Scholastic manuals in nearly all the schools of the peninsula. But it was not only among the clergy that this doctrine found adherents. Among the laity, Gioja (1767– 1829) and Romagnosi (1761-1835) embraced it and developed it in the direction in which it has always done most good, viz., in that of law and legislation. Towards the year 1820, criticism or Kantianism, the German development of Lockian sensism, began to make its appearance in Italy, especially in the works of Pasquale Galluppi, one of the most considerable of Italian philosophers; and from that day to this it has exercised a sensible influence on nearly all Italian thinkers. But neither sensism nor its development, criticism, is congenial to Italian natures or calculated to encourage their healthy unfolding. Sensism may free from superstition, and criticism supplement the result by sharpening the intelligence; but neither or both could restore that balance between head, heart, and sense which makes the life of the virtuous Italian. Accordingly, the immediate effect of Transalpine philosophies was merely to start a fermentation, which, though, thanks to other influences, it produced in the end much good, was itself detrimental to faith, in its true and best sense, and, as a consequence, to science, art, and morals. Indeed, in the first three decades of this century, the condition of Italy, political, moral, social, and intellectual, was, through foreign influences largely, such as might well inspire distrust and despair in serious and high-minded men. It was at the end of this period and under these unfavourable circumstances that there appeared before the world a man destined to initiate a new era in thought. Of the life of that man, the following is a brief sketch. * Antonio Rosmini-Serbati was born on the 25th of March, 1797, at Rovereto † in the Italian Tyrol. His father was Pier Modesto Rosmini-Serbati, belonging to an old, wealthy, and noble family, originally called Aresmino or Eresmino, and his mother a Countess Giovanna dei Formenti, from Riva on the Lake of Garda. Both, like many * This sketch owes its materials mostly to Father Paoli's recently published work, Della Vila di Antonio Rosmini-Serbati (Torino, 1880); to Rosmini's own account, also recently published, of his mission to Rome, Della Missione di Antonio Rosmini-Serbati alla Corte di Roma, negli Anni 1848-49 (Paravia, Torino, 1881); and to frequent conversations with persons who knew Rosmini well. Rovereto is a picturesque town of some twenty thousand inhabitants, standing on the left bank of the Adige, a few miles below Trent. The house, or palazzo, in which Rosmini was born is one of the largest and handsomest in the place. Including some additions made to it recently by his followers, it contains about a hundred and fifty rooms, in which are stored a large part of Rosmini's library, some twenty thousand engravings, and many oil paintings, together with relics of every period of his life. An excellent statue of him by the sculptor, Vincenzo Consani, adorns the public square. See Paoli's Antonio Rosmini e la sua Prosapia (Rovereto, 1880). of their ancestors, were cultivated, generous, and pious people, zealously devoted to the interests of the Church, but do not seem to have been in any other way remarkable. They had four children-Margherita, who became a nun and a remarkable woman, Antonio, Giuseppe, and Felice, the last of whom died in infancy. Antonio was a delicate and finely organized child, and very early showed signs of those virtues of head and heart for which he afterwards became remarkable, as well as of that religious and devotional tendency which gave aim to his whole life. His childhood and youth were full of "sweetness and light" (lumen et dulcedo, as St. Bonaventura says), full of quiet, pure, unconscious happiness, in whose sunshine all goodness and nobleness grew like trees beside a constant river. Reared amid scenes at once beautiful, grandiose, and suggestive of immensity, he became affected at an early age with a loving sense of the majesty and mystery of Nature. Being fond of study, he entered, when still very young, the gymnasium of his native town, and there so distinguished himself that the rector was able to predict, in no indefinite terms, the boy's future greatness. After leaving the gymnasium, he remained two years at home, studying privately, under the excellent Father Orsi, mathematics and philosophy, two subjects for which he early displayed great tendency and capacity. Father Orsi, like most Italian thinkers of his time, was in philosophy a Lockian, and tried to impart that system to his pupil; but the latter, having already conned the writings of the Schoolmen, so confounded his teacher by his subtle objections, that the good father was soon obliged to confine his instruction to the subject of mathematics. It was in the course of these two years (1815-16) that two of the most important events in Rosmini's life took place the discovery of his philosophical principle, and his |