The reader will find in this poem allusions to events which have
passed in Italy,—fluent when the lines were written, but now
crystallized into history,—and prophecies, some of which have
come, or are coming true, while others have been fulfilled otherwise
than was foreboded. These passages of the poem may therefore
lose somewhat of the flavor they might have had if read at that
period. The rapid and wonderful scene-shifting, too, that has gone
on in the great European theatre of Church and State may have the
effect of dimming their freshness somewhat. But the thoughts and
principles here embodied can never cease to interest all who care
for liberty of thought and speech, and will maintain a supreme importance so long as the Romish Church holds to its assumptions in
the face of the nineteenth century.
If much of the language in these verses apostrophizing this
mighty organization seems too unqualified and denunciatory, it will
be seen that I have endeavored to give praise also where I felt it
to be due. But the poem was written in Catholic Europe, where I
was daily impressed with characteristics which stood out more baldly
prominent than any which come to our notice in America.
