Nature evidently has intended me to be a libertine, and
I am determined to fulfil my destination. Why, if spirits like ours
were not produced every now and then, the world would absolutely go
fast asleep, but we rouse it by deranging the old order of things,
force mankind to quicken their snail's pace, furnish a million of
idlers with riddles which they puzzle their brains about without
being able to comprehend, infuse some hundreds of new ideas into the
heads of the great multitude, and, in short, are as useful to the
world as tempests are, which dissipate those exhalations with which
Nature otherwise would poison herself.
Falieri.--Excellent sophistry, by my honour. Why, Contarino,
ancient Rome has had an irreparable loss in not having numbered you
among her orators. It is a pity, though, that there should be so
little that's solid wrapped up in so many fine-sounding words. Now
learn that while you, with this rare talent of eloquence, have been
most unmercifully wearing out the patience of your good-natured
hearers, Falieri has been in ACTION. The Cardinal Gonzaga is
discontented with the government--Heaven knows what Andreas has done
to make him so vehemently his enemy--but, in short, Gonzaga now
belongs to our party.
Parozzi (with astonishment and delight).--Falieri, are you in your
senses? The Cardinal Gonzaga--?
Falieri.--Is ours, and ours both body and soul. I confess I was
first obliged to rhodomontade a good deal to him about our
patriotism, our glorious designs, our love for freedom, and so
forth; in short, Gonzaga is a hypocrite, and therefore is Gonzaga
the fitter for us.
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