his apprentice a traitor, and as for Paolo himself, Marzio considered
him the blackest of villains. For all this chain of hatreds led
backwards, and was concentrated with tenfold virulence in his great
hatred for his brother. Paolo, in his estimation, was the author of all
the evil, the sole ultimate cause of domestic discord, the arch enemy of
the future, the representative, in Marzio's sweeping condemnation, not
only of the church and of religion, but of that whole fabric of existing
society which the chiseller longed to tear down.

Marzio's socialism, for so he called it, had one good feature. It was
sincere of its kind, and disinterested. He was not of the common herd, a
lazy vagabond, incapable of continuous work, or of perseverance in any
productive occupation, desiring only to be enriched by impoverishing
others, one of the endless rank and file of Italian republicans, to whom
the word "republic" means nothing but bread without work, and the
liberty which consists in howling blasphemies by day and night in the
public streets. His position was as different from that of a private in
the blackguard battalion as his artistic gifts and his industry were
superior to those of the throng. He had money, he had talent, and he had
been very successful in his occupation. He had nothing to gain by the
revolutions he dreamed of, and he might lose much by any upsetting of
the existing laws of property. He was, therefore, perfectly sincere, so
far as his convictions went, and disinterested to a remarkable degree.
These conditions are often found in the social position of the true
fanatic, who is the more ready to run to the greatest length, because he
entertains no desire to better his own state. Marzio's real weakness lay
in the limited scope of his views, and in a certain timid prudence which
destroyed his power of initiative. He was an economical man, who
distrusted the future; and though such a disposition produces a good
effect in causing a man to save money against the day of misfortune, it