THE SPIRIT OF FASCISM—A NEW AENEID ?
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—Is it by accident or design that one of the essential phrases in Signor Mussolini's message defines Fascism in terms of pietas—the idea or ideal round which Virgil in other days wrote his message to the world ? Macaulay's school- boy would tell us, if need be, what no doubt everybody knows already, that the word plus, the standing epithet of the hero Aeneas, connotes loyalty to the Gods, to Fatherland and to Family. Adsit omen ! If " the sacred principles of Religion, of Patriotism or of the Family " are and continue to be the soul of Fascism, this new Aeneas—" pietate insignis " —has indeed tapped one of the greatest springs of inspiration that the world of ideals or idealists has ever known. " In that sign," as you write, he and his cause " will conquer."
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