[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The following quotation from
Bryce's Holy Roman Empire is relevant to Mr. J. B. Jones's attempted equation of Mussolini's ideals with the very different ideals of Dante, which Mr. Griffith has admirably summarised : " Dante prayed for a monarchy of the world, a keign of peace and Christian brotherhood ; those who, five centuries later, invoked his name as the earliest prophet of their creed, strove after an idea that never crossed his mind—the gathering of all Italians into a national' State."
Dante nowhere reveals himself as one to whom the savagery of Mussolini towards Abyssinia would have been agreeable ; and in the latter's attitude towards individual freedom and towards the idea of universal peace no sign can be detected of any spiritual kinship to the Christian poet who wrote in De Monarchia : " The best state of man is that in which he is most free ; and the foundation of our liberty is freedom of the will. And this liberty is the greatest blessing that God hath bestowed on human nature " : and, again, " It is manifest that universal peace is of all things best suited to the promotion of human happiness. . . . Hence the voice from heaven spoke not of riches nor of honours, nor of beriuty, but of peace. For the heavenly host cried : ' Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards all men '."—I am, Sir, yours
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