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Operette Morali
Essays and Dialogues

B I B L I O T E C A I T A L I A N A
This series is conceived as a library
of bilingual editions of works chosen
for their importance to Italian literature
and to the international tradition
of art and thought Italy has nurtured.
In each volume an Italian text
in an authoritative edition is paired
with a new facing-page translation
supplemented by explanatory notes
and a selected bibliography.
An introduction provides a historical and
critical interpretation of the work.
The scholars preparing these volumes
hope through Biblioteca Italiana to point
a straight way to the Italian classics.
G E N E R A L E D I T O R : Louise George Clubb
EDITORIAL BOARD
Paul J. Alpers, Vittore Branca
Gene Brucker, Fredi Chiappelli
Phillip W. Damon, Robert M. Durling
Gianfranco Folena, Lauro Martines
Nicolas J. Perella
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
UNIVERSITY OF PADUA

Operette Morali
Giacomo Leopardi
TRANSLATED
WITH INTRODUCTION
AND NOTES BY
G I O V A N N I C E C C H E T T I
U N I V E R S I T Y
OF C A L I F O R N I A
PRESS
BERKELEY
LOS ANGELES
LONDON

University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 1982 by
The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Leopardi, Giacomo, 1798-1837.
Operette morali.
(Biblioteca italiana)
English and Italian.
I. Cecchetti, Giovanni, 1922— 11. Title.
hi. Series.
PQ4709.E5A13 1982 854'.7 82-2627
ISBN 0-520-04704-4 AACR2
Printed in the United States of America
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Contents
Preface
ix
Introduction
1
Storia del genere umano
History of the Human Race
22
Dialogo d'Ercole e di Atlante
Dialogue Between Hercules and Atlas
56
Dialogo della Moda e della Morte
Dialogue Between Fashion and Death
66
Proposta di premi fatta
dall'Accademia dei Sillografi
Announcement of Prizes
by the Academy of Syllographs
76
Dialogo di un Folletto e di uno Gnomo
Dialogue Between a Sprite and a Gnome
86
v

CONTENTS
Dialogo di Malambruno e di Farfarello
Dialogue Between Malambruno and Farfarello
96
Dialogo della Natura e di un'Anima
Dialogue Between Nature and a Soul
104
Dialogo della Terra e della Luna
Dialogue Between the Earth and the Moon
114
La scommessa di Prometeo
The Wager of Prometheus
130
Dialogo di un Fisico e di un Metafisico
Dialogue Between a Scientist and a Philosopher
152
Dialogo di Torquato Tasso
e del suo Genio familiare
Dialogue Between Torquato Tasso
and His Familiar Spirit
166
Dialogo della Natura e di un Islandese
Dialogue Between Nature and an Icelander
184
Il Parini, ovvero della gloria
Parini's Discourse on Glory
200
Dialogo di Federico Ruysch
e delle sue mummie
Dialogue Between Frederick Ruysch
and His Mummies
270
vi

CONTENTS
Detti memorabili di Filippo Ottonieri
Memorable Sayings of Filippo Ottonieri
284
Dialogo di Cristoforo Colombo
e di Pietro Gutierrez
Dialogue Between Christopher Columbus
and Pedro Gutierrez
340
Elogio degli uccelli
In Praise of Birds
352
Cantico del gallo silvestre
Song of the Great Wild Rooster
370
Frammento apocrifo di Stratone da Lampsaco
Apocryphal Fragment of Strato of Lampsacus
380
Dialogo di Timandro e di Eleandro
Dialogue Between Timander and Eleander
392
Il Copernico
The Copernicus
416
Dialogo di Plotino e di Porfirio
Dialogue Between Plotinus and Porphyry
442
Dialogo di un venditore d'almanacchi
e di un passeggere
Dialogue Between an Almanac Peddler
and a Passer-By
478

CONTENTS
Dialogo di Tristano e di un amico
Dialogue Between Tristan and a Friend
484
Notes
509
Selected Bibliography
543
fill

Preface
THIS TRANSLATION and the Italian text are based on
Operette morali di Giacomo Leopardi, edizione critica ad
opera di Francesco Moroncini (Bologna: Cappelli, 1929),
with the few misprints corrected and with some typo-
graphical modifications, but retaining Leopardi's con-
sistent use of the grave accent. Moroncini's text has
been reproduced by all subsequent editors. Even a re-
cent "critical" edition by Ottavio Besomi (Milano:
Mondadori, 1979) in effect repeats the same text in its
entirety. The order of the operette is the traditional one
established by Leopardi himself before he died and fol-
lowed by his friend Antonio Ranieri for the 1845 post-
humous printing in Florence.
As to the translation itself, although it is as literal as
possible, it also makes a constant effort to reproduce
a certain atmosphere, a certain special tone—though
with unavoidably limited success—and especially a
certain stylistic diversity. The operette are written in a
variety of styles, according to the tone their author in-
tends to convey. They may carry a spoken, even a
somewhat colloquial, flavor in most of the dialogues
or a calmly expository one in some essays; or they may
surprise us with their highly poetic power. There are
even moments when all these tones merge in the same
operetta. Obviously, such richness and variety make
Leopardi's prose particularly difficult to translate.
Leopardi uses many words in their archaic and even
etymological sense. Thus, vano may mean "empty,"
alia nostra memoria "in our time," forma "appearance,"
notizia "knowledge," razionale "ideal," and so on. It
goes without saying that the translation gives their
modern English equivalents.
The quotations from Poesie e Prose, I and II, referred

PREFACE
to as Flora, I and II, derive from the standard Mon-
dadori edition of Tutte le opere di Giacomo Leopardi,
edited by Francesco Flora. The other volumes of the
same opere are referred to as Lettere (one volume) or as
Zibaldone (two volumes). The basic critical edition of
the Operette morali is referred to as Moroncini.
I would like to express my gratitude to all those
who have helped me during this work, especially to
Louise G. Clubb and to Nicolas J. Perella for their nu-
merous, invaluable suggestions during the preparation
of the manuscript.

Introduction
l
B Y 1824, W H E N HE WROTE the bulk of his Operette
morali, the twenty-six-year-old Leopardi had absorbed
most of the heritage of Western civilization in its origi-
nal form—in Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and other ancient
and modern languages. From a very early age he had
devoted all his energies to a "studio matto e disperatis-
simo" (mad and most desperate study),1
driven by a
compulsion to learn everything. He had edited pon-
derous Latin and Greek texts and had composed (at the
age of fifteen) an amazingly competent Storia dell'astro-
nomia (History of Astronomy) from the beginning of
recorded time to his day and (at the age of seventeen) a
fascinating volume of literary folklore, the Saggio sopra
gli errori popolari degli antichi (Essay on the Popular Su-
perstitions of the Ancients). He was the author of sub-
stantial philological studies, the remarkable Discorso di
un italiano intorno alla poesia romantica (An Italian's Dis-
course on Romantic Poetry), two tragedies, a long nar-
rative poem, and sensitive translations from Greek and
Latin poetry; and he had revealed himself as one of the
finest—if still unappreciated—poets of his century
with the ten canzoni and especially with the so-called
Idilli (Idylls) such as "L'infinito" (The Infinite), "Alia
luna" (To the Moon), "La sera del dì di festa" (Holiday
Evening), and "La vita solitaria" (Life in Solitude). In
1817 he had begun to record his own meditations in a
diary that he called Zibaldone (Casual Notes), which
grew to many thousands of pages and which remains
to this day an inexhaustible source of ideas on all hu-
manistic subjects. There he also expressed those per-
1. Lettere, ed. Flora, p. 127.
1

INTRODUCTION
sonai considerations, intuitions, and images, more or
less lengthily developed, that were to form the fabric
of his prose and poetry.
The unswerving determination and relentlessness
with which he had applied himself to his studies dur-
ing his formative years had kept him away from physi-
cal activities, with the result that his health had been
seriously undermined and his spine had grown de-
formed and rachitic. This condition had isolated him
from the other youths in his native town, so books,
ancient and modern, and his own papers were almost
his only friends, the only ones with whom he could
communicate. Yet his solitary condition made his men-
tal vigor still greater and keener. It undoubtedly gave
him an unusual opportunity for meditating on human
life, enabling him to transcend his personal ills and the
ills of individual men and to rise to the contemplation
of a common destiny. His physical deformity and poor
health, therefore, became an extraordinary source of
power and provided him with the tools for knowing
the human world. This fundamental point must be
kept in mind when reading Leopardi's writings so that
we avoid the pitfall that has tripped up those critics
who believe his vision of life is exclusively the result of
his physical condition.
On January 5, 1821, Leopardi wrote to his literary
friend and elective mentor Pietro Giordani:
Leggo e scrivo e fo tanti disegni, che a voler co-
lorire e terminare quei soli che ho, non solamente
schizzati, ma delineati, fo conto che non mi bas-
terebbero quattro vite. Se bene io comprendo
anzi sento tutto giorno e intensamente l'inutilità
delle cose umane, contuttociò m'addolora e m'af-
fanna la considerazione di quanto ci sarebbe da
fare, e quanto poco potrò fare. Massimamente
che questa sola vita che la natura mi concede, la
2

INTRODUCTION
miseria me la intorpidisce e incatena; e me la
vedo sdrucciolare e sfumare tra le mie mani; in
guisa che laddove ai miei disegni si richiedereb-
bero molte vite, non ne avrò quasi neppur una.2
I am busy reading and writing and thinking of so
many projects that to bring to completion even
those I have drafted, not to mention those I have
only sketched, would, I am sure, take me four
lifetimes. Although I continuously understand,
in fact I intensely feel, the futility of everything
human, I am still grieved and distressed by the
thought of how much there is to do—especially
because this one life granted me by nature is be-
numbed and shackled with misery; and I see it
slipping through my fingers. So while my proj-
ects would require many lifetimes, I shall hardly
have even one.
He had already mentioned one of those projects to
that same friend four months earlier3
and had also
noted it down in a long list of future works: "Dialoghi
satirici alla maniera di Luciano" (Satirical Dialogues in
the Style of Lucian).4
This was, of course, a reference
to that series of shorter prose works that were to be-
come the Operette morali. But their actual writing be-
gan in January 1824 and lasted until the middle of No-
vember of the same year, when Leopardi completed
the "Cantico del gallo silvestre" (Song of the Great
Wild Rooster), which concluded the original group of
twenty essays and dialogues. Many of the innumerable
observations that had crystallized in the thousands of
pages of his Zibaldone were thus finally organized and
reworked into what Leopardi thought would become a
philosophical book but instead turned out to be, as
he himself realized some years later, a book of poetic
myths.
2. Ibid., pp. 301-02. 3. Ibid., p. 285. 4. Flora, I, 693.

I N T R O D U C T I O N
The title, Operette morali, points to his philosophical
intention, but it can in no way be understood literally.
The operette are "moral" in the sense that they proclaim
the true nature of life itself and ultimately advocate fac-
ing it for what it is. They are also "moral," therefore,
in the sense that every real work of art is moral: a
translation of the perpetual desires and disappoint-
ments of man into images of permanent value and thus
an exalted, universal objectification of such desires and
disappointments.
His vast humanistic background caused Leopardi to
find an example in Lucian, the Greek master of satirical
prose, with w h o m he felt he could compete. The term
satirical was, in fact, the one most often mentioned in
the planning stages of the book. But, notwithstanding
the original intention, very few of the dialogues and
not a single one of the essays can be said to have any
precedent in Lucian. Moreover, very little in them can
be considered satirical. Whenever Leopardi wants to
chide his contemporaries, he is serious and direct in his
condemnation. Like Dante, he is much too convinced
of their folly and of his own righteousness to be able to
laugh with detachment. There are indeed times when
he tells us that he is laughing, but it is the laughter of
bitterness and derision, not the Socratic smile of the
sage w h o stands above human foibles.
2
At the center of Leopardi's meditations and writings
lies an incessant dialectical struggle between illusion
and reality. It is conceived as the very nucleus of the
inner world of man—a world in which, from one day
to the next, man hopes for fulfillment, for a happiness
that will come in the future, when present dreams are
finally realized. But then reality unfailingly reveals it-

INTRODUCTION
self as inferior to all hopes and expectations. Thus, the
only good moments are those in which man imagines
happiness to come. The only desirable and acceptable
part of life is early youth, when man dreams without
any knowledge of reality; and the only desirable part
of the day is the morning—the day being the concen-
trated image of life. In a famous poem, "II sabato del
villaggio" (Saturday Evening in the Village), written
five years after the Operette morali, Leopardi maintains
that the best hours of the week are those when people
look forward to, and prepare themselves for, the holi-
day, not the holiday itself, which brings nothing but
tedium and the thought of the coming work days. Life
then is possible only as long as man can overcome, or
rather forget, that reality, or that truth, which destroys
all dreams.
This concept runs through the Operette morali from
the first page to the last. It is developed in all its ramifi-
cations and regularly leads to inevitable conclusions.
The opening piece, "Storia del genere umano" (His-
tory of the Human Race), which is intended as a vast
overture to the series, is rooted in this theme. The
"Storia" was the first essay to be written—itself an
amazing fact, for it demonstrates that when, in January
1824, Leopardi sat down to compose his initial operetta,
he already had clearly in mind the structure and con-
tents of the whole book, if not in all its details then cer-
tainly in the general design.
In the "Storia del genere umano" the poetic pres-
ence of dreams, hopes, and expectations is quickly
transformed into man's indefatigable search for "hap-
piness"—a word that is constantly woven into the nar-
rative texture so that it appears more and more elusive,
a mirage growing more and more unreal. In fact, no
one knows whether it exists or if it has any substance.
Jove himself, the great creator who can strew the night

INTRODUCTION
with stars and make provisions to uplift the spirit of
man, at least temporarily, does not have the power to
satisfy the insatiable yearnings of his creatures. All he
can do is to distract them by complicating life. He even
sends them powerful illusions, or phantoms, which
give life itself the semblance of meaning and purpose.
But mankind, possessed by an irrepressible desire for
knowledge, wants Truth. When Truth does come to
earth, all illusions disappear, leaving the human race
feeling more miserable than ever. At this point Jove
and the other gods, in their infinite compassion, send
Love, who dwells in the hearts of only a few, but "ne-
gli animi che egli si elegge ad abitare, suscita e rinver-
disce . . . l'infinita speranza e le belle e care immagi-
nazioni degli anni teneri" (in those he elects to inhabit,
he revives and restores . . . the infinite hopes and the
cherished fantasies of their tender years). Love is the
ultimate illusion, as Leopardi had written four years
earlier in his canzone to Angelo Mai, and lovers can
find a measure of happiness only because they revert to
childhood, the age of illusions and expectations. Thus,
the "Storia del genere umano" ends with the rediscov-
ery of its own beginning.
As can be said of many of the Operette morali, the
"Storia del genere umano" is a history of mankind
from within, not from without. It relates and rein-
terprets the eternal myths of man—from the Golden
Age to the age of philosophers to the Romantic era—
by translating them into man's own perpetual spiritual
needs and turning them into a greater and more com-
prehensive myth. This continuous unveiling of the
spirit of man and then clothing it in man's own dreams
and fantasies—whether derived from classical litera-
ture or modern history, or personally invented—is the
method Leopardi adopts in his book. It is also what
makes him one of the great humanists of modern times

INTRODUCTION
and one of the few writers who can legitimately stand
side by side with the classics.
Happiness, as the incessantly frustrated purpose of
life, is presented again in the "Dialogo di un Fisico e di
un Metafisico" (Dialogue Between a Scientist and a
Philosopher). It often assumes other names. There are
cases, for instance, when it is called "piacere" (plea-
sure), by which Leopardi means fulfillment in the most
complete sense of the word. In the "Dialogo di Tor-
quato Tasso e del suo Genio familiare" (Dialogue Be-
tween Torquato Tasso and His Familiar Spirit), Leo-
pardi theorizes on the very essence of pleasure: "è un
desiderio, non un fatto . . . un concetto, e non un sen-
timento" (it is a desire, and not a fact . . . a concept,
and not a feeling), and he reaches the conclusion that it
belongs to the sphere of "dreams." A somewhat modi-
fied restatement of the same concept permeates the
"Dialogo di un venditore d'almanacchi e di un passeg-
gere" (Dialogue Between an Almanac Peddler and a
Passer-By), which concludes with these striking words:
"Quella vita ch'è una cosa bella, non è la vita che si
conosce, ma quella che non si conosce, non la vita pas-
sata, ma la futura" (The life that's beautiful is not the
life we know but the life we don't know; not the past
life but the future one). This relates to another funda-
mental Leopardian conclusion: if reality destroys dreams,
hopes, and illusions and if the understanding of reality
is more likely to come to the intelligent than to those
with limited mental powers, it follows that intelligence
is indeed a calamity. In the "Dialogo della Natura e di
un'Anima" (Dialogue Between Nature and a Soul),
Nature develops this concept with such cogent argu-
ments that the Soul asks to be stripped of all intellec-
tual gifts and be made the most stupid and senseless
human spirit who ever lived on earth.
The consciousness of reality and the state of inert

INTRODUCTION
suspense between disappointment and new hopes pro-
duce a condition o f tedium, boredom, or ennui—that
same feeling that leads the men o f the "Storia del gé-
néré u m a n o " and the Englishman o f "La scommessa di
Prometeo" (The Wager o f Prometheus) to suicide. It is
a Romantic motif that Leopardi grasped at the very be-
ginning o f the century, before it was defined as le mal
du siècle. H e gave it what was probably the most pene-
trating and suggestive expression o f his time.
B o r e d o m is the neutral condition o f the human
spirit, like the lull between t w o storms, creating a state
o f mind that is difficult to sustain. In the " D i a l o g o di
Torquato Tasso e del suo Genio familiare" Leopardi
says that b o r e d o m "is o f the same nature as the air" and
occupies all the intervals between pleasures and pains;
and since pleasures are made o f the same substance as
spider w e b s — e x t r e m e l y thin, tenuous, and transpar-
e n t — b o r e d o m permeates and fills them just as air per-
meates and fills webs. Finally, he declares that bore-
d o m is the pure desire for happiness, which is neither
satisfied by pleasure nor openly troubled by pain. In
the " D i a l o g o di Plotino e di Porfirio" (Dialogue B e -
tween Plotinus and Porphyry), one o f the t w o inter-
locutors asserts that b o r e d o m is sufficient reason to
end one's life voluntarily. This theme o f boredom re-
curs in a celebrated poem, the " C a n t o notturno d'un
pastore errante nell'Asia" (Night Song o f a Wandering
Shepherd in Asia), written in 1830. Leopardi also of-
fers some remedies for boredom. In the "Storia del
genere u m a n o " they are the continuous difficulties o f
survival, the necessity o f hard w o r k to find food, and
especially all kinds o f diseases; and in the magnificent
" D i a l o g o di Cristoforo C o l o m b o e di Pietro Gutier-
rez" (Dialogue Between Christopher C o l u m b u s and
Pedro Gutierrez), the unavoidable risks faced b y sailors
8

INTRODUCTION
and by soldiers, who hold life particularly dear because
they are in constant danger of losing it.
But we find other themes in the Operette as well.
Among them stand out the anti-Romantic demonstra-
tion of the eternal cycles of Nature and of her resulting
total disregard for man and his needs5
and the insignifi-
cance of earth and of man on earth.6
A special place must be assigned to the "Dialogo di
Federico Ruysch e delle sue mummie" (Dialogue Be-
tween Frederick Ruysch and His Mummies), generally
considered one of the most astonishing treatments of
the theme of death in all literature. Profoundly poetic
in itself, it begins with one of the most essential and
austere of Leopardi's poems, suddenly sung at the same
time by the dead of all ages. This extraordinary vision
is followed by a discussion of the moment of death,
which is likened to the relaxing process of falling asleep.
Presenting death as pleasurable rather than painful was
indeed revolutionary in a culture in which the last
hours of life were—and still are—called "agony." But
the image of sleep bringing the ultimate escape is still
more significant. The escape of death is presented in
the "Storia del genere umano" and the escape of sleep
in the "Dialogo di Torquato Tasso e del suo Genio fa-
miliare." In the "Dialogo di Federico Ruysch e delle
sue mummie" Leopardi unifies these two escapes—as
he does again in the justly celebrated "Cantico del gallo
silvestre," where, after stating that in the morning we
5. See "Dialogo della Natura e di un Islandese" (Dialogue Be-
tween Nature and an Icelander).
6. See "Dialogo d ' Ercole e di Atlante" (Dialogue Between Her-
cules and Atlas), "Dialogo della Terra e della Luna" (Dialogue
Between the Earth and the Moon), "Dialogo di un Folletto e di
uno Gnomo" (Dialogue Between a Sprite and a Gnome), and
finally "II Copernico" (The Copernicus), which has a vivacity
and a ripeness all its own.

INTRODUCTION
must revert from the false to the real, he contemplates
a world without sound and without movement, per-
petually asleep, and then he loses himself in the vision
of the disappearance of the entire cosmos, with univer-
sal sleep and universal death having become one and
the same thing.
The gullibility of man is deplored in the "Dialogo
della Moda e della Morte" (Dialogue Between Fashion
and Death). But the "dialogues" Leopardi wrote in de-
fense of his own ideas and of his own book are still
more significant: the "Dialogo di Timandro e di Ele-
andro" (Dialogue Between Timander and Eleander)
and the "Dialogo di Tristano e di un amico" (Dialogue
Between Tristan and a Friend), where he engages in
open and hopeless battle against the stubborn delusions
of his own century, until he finds a haven in death.
To survey the main themes of the Operette morali, as
I have partly done so far, necessarily reduces them to
little more than a collection of skeletons. The truth is
that every page pulsates with quiet excitement like the
surface of an ocean. In a book that intends to strip life
of all those ornaments that make it bearable and to re-
veal its bareness, there is remarkably little despair. Hu-
man life, Leopardi tells us, is what it is, and it would be
cowardly to delude ourselves and to live by false be-
liefs.7
Yet "il nostro fato, dove che egli ci tragga, e da
seguire con animo forte e grande" (our fate, wherever
it might lead us, must be followed with great strength
and courage). This is what we read at the end of the
lengthy "II Parini, ovvero della gloria" (Parini's Dis-
course on Glory). And at the conclusion of the "Di-
alogo di Plotino e di Porfirio" Leopardi states that life
should be lived so that we may at least "keep each
7. See "Dialogo di Tristano e di un amico" (Dialogue Between
Tristan and a Friend).
10

INTRODUCTION
other company" and "help and support each other."
Ultimately, then, our association and communion with
others is what gives meaning to human existence.
3
Although great works of art are generally the distil-
late and the rejuvenation of an entire tradition, they are
also projected toward the future; they speak a new lan-
guage and present newly formulated perceptions of the
world and of man, thereby offering what will be part
of a new tradition. For this reason many important
products of the human mind are not fully appreciated
by their contemporaries and often meet with outright
rejection. For us, at the end of the twentieth century, it
is difficult to understand that the first and main objec-
tions even to printing the Operette morali came from
opposition to its philosophical content, which was
dubbed totally negative and destructive. Leopardi
managed to convince his Milanese publisher and friend
Antonio Stella to bring out the book in 1827. But the
reviews were mostly unfavorable. They praised the
consummate artistry of the style but could not accept
the ideas. In 1829 Leopardi entered his volume into
competition for the prestigious Accademia della Crusca
prize, which was given every five years to the best new
literary work. This time it was awarded to the bulky
and undistinguished Storia d'ltalia by Carlo Botta be-
cause of the "importance of the subject matter." Again
the judges praised Leopardi's style but deplored his
ideas. After 1827 no printing of the Operette morali ap-
peared until 1834. In 1835 Leopardi asked a Neapolitan
publisher to issue a new, enlarged edition of the book,
but the printing was soon interrupted by order of the
local authorites. The first complete text was published
in Florence in 1845, eight years after the poet's death.

INTRODUCTION
In 1850 it was placed on the index of forbidden books
by the Roman Curia.
Leopardi had not expected his ideas to meet with
such general disapproval, for most of them were al-
ready present in the poetry and prose of the ancient
Greeks. He proved this point by quoting from Homer
as well as from other authors in the central part of the
"Dialogo di Tristano e di un amico," written eight
years after the original operette published in 1827. Dur-
ing those eight years, he also composed a number of
letters, containing statements that are quite significant,
for they tell us his personal opinions and his intentions
concerning his book. Early in 1826 he wrote to Stella
about the manuscript: "In quel ms. consiste, si può
dire, il frutto della mia vita finora passata, e io l'ho più
caro de' miei occhi" (This ms. is, so to speak, the result
of m y past life, and I hold it dearer than m y very
eyes).8 Later he worried about the possibility that the
Milanese censors might not return the manuscript, and
he declared: " M i contenterei assai più di perder la testa
che questo manoscritto" (I would rather lose m y head
than this manuscript).9 Such expressions of attachment
to his Operette occur in several other letters. They all
indicate that he was profoundly conscious of having
written an important book.
When Stella passed on to him the opinion of a noted
writer and critic, Niccolò Tommaseo, w h o had called
the contents of the Operette "gratuitous, nauseatingly
cold, and desolatingly bitter,"10 Leopardi answered
that this judgment did not surprise him and that he
wished Tommaseo were right." Similar comments
were offered by nearly all the critics of the time. Leo-
8. Lettere, ed. Flora, p. 652. 9. Ibid., p. 672.
10. See Moroncini, I, p. xxi. 11. Lettere, ed. Flora, p. 782.
12

pardi could not defend himself, nor did he try to do so.
He knew that he had written the truth about life and
that man can never accept the truth. Therefore, if re-
jection of facts is characteristic of human nature, no
one can be expected to accept those facts. When his fa-
ther, Monaldo, w h o had literary ambitions of his own,
urged him to make some changes, he answered that he
would seriously consider doing so, but to counteract
his father's criticism, he simply added that his intention
had been "di fare poesia in prosa" (to write poetry in
prose).12
Soon after, Monaldo published his Dialoghetti
(Little Dialogues) based on a rather conventional view
of human life and of contemporary society but in title
and structure vaguely reminiscent of the Operette mo-
rali. A number of readers thought that Giacomo had
authored them, and he had to deny publicly having
done so.
But the assertion that he had intended to write "po-
etry in prose," freely adapting all kinds of myths, brings
us back to the most intimate substance of the Operette
morali. Undoubtedly, the book had a philosophical in-
tent in the general sense that it was to present the es-
sence and the purpose of life as Leopardi saw it. Like
the writers of antiquity, he considered poetry the ideal
vehicle for a message, a mirror reflecting eternal truths.
Ancient prose itelf, such as the Dialogues of Plato,
could not be regarded as anything but poetry. He was
so convinced of this fact that several years before writ-
ing the Operette, he had stated in his diary that prose
was more suitable than verse to modern poetry ("pare
che la prosa sarebbe piu confacente del verso alia poesia
moderna").1 3
Obviously, he applied this principle when
he wrote his essays and dialogues. Interestingly enough,
12. Ibid., p. 979. 13. Zibaldone, ed. Flora, I, 1328.
13

at the beginning of our century the critics and poets
w h o gathered around the journal La Rondau
main-
tained that the Operette morali was a great work of po-
etry, though written in prose—their judgment thus
coinciding with Leopardi's own intentions.
The Operette morali is written in an extremely elabo-
rate prose style that has deep roots in the entire tradi-
tion of Italian literature as well as in Latin and Greek
models. Leopardi had developed his style after many
years of study and through profound feeling for the
specific harmonious combination of words that at once
reflects and produces images. He knew that ideas carry
very little weight unless they are expressed with con-
summate artistry—an artistry that he called "stile"
(style). In "Il Parini, ovvero della gloria" he insists on
the "perfection of style" as the very substance of litera-
ture, and then he adds: "Spessissimo occorre che se tu
spogli del suo stile una scrittura famosa, di cui ti pen-
savi che quasi tutto il pregio stesse nelle sentenze, tu la
riduci in istato, che ella ti par cosa di niuna stima" (It
very often happens that if you take a famous writing
that you thought important mostly for its ideas and de-
prive it of its style, you reduce it to such a state that it
seems of no significance whatsoever). It is on style, he
says, that the future life of a work of literature depends.
Leopardi's sentences are complex, full of incidental
phrases, of suggestive-sounding adverbs, and of verbs
and nouns and adjectives that generally appear in pairs,
14. La Ronda was founded in R o m e in 1919 and lasted until De-
cember 1923. It was edited by some of the most significant
young Italian writers of the time: Vincenzo Cardarelli, Ric-
cardo Bacchelli, Emilio Cecchi, Antonio Baldini, and Lorenzo
Montano, w h o intended to "rescue" contemporary literature
f r o m the unbridled "exaggerations" of Futurism and to return
it to the stylistic purity of the classica! past. Along with the
great works of the Renaissance, Leopardi's Operette morali was
viewed as a model of such purity.

producing a form of binary melody that stays with the
reader. The creation of the echo in the "Storia del ge-
nere umano" and the last paragraph of the "Cantico del
gallo silvestre" are examples of such a melody. Leo-
pardi was fascinated by visions of space, by the mys-
tery of time, by the sense of eternity remaining silent
after the disappearance of the universe. His prose cre-
ates this world of vastness and places it before our eyes
in the same way the poetry of Homer and Virgil cre-
ates the vast movement of the sea. It is a prose that
does indeed approach the perfection he sought with so
much passion. He wrote in his diary that the most sug-
gestive words are the unusual ones15
and those indefi-
nite in meaning,'6
for they offer special possibilities to
our imagination. In the Operette morali he utilizes words
of this type particularly in the more poetic parts of his
essays where he establishes a musical and visionary
background for his thoughts.
But the prose of the Operette morali varies with the
situation. It is more solemn, closer to Leopardi's own
poetry, in such works as the "Storia del genere umano,"
the "Elogio degli uccelli," and the "Cantico del gallo
silvestre"; and it is more fluid, spoken (but generally
on a high level) in many dialogues. The reader experi-
ences these differences; he also realizes that in some di-
alogues, such as the "Dialogo di Cristoforo Colombo
e di Pietro Gutierrez," and the "Dialogo di Tristano e
di un amico," the spoken continuously intermingles
with the poetic, thus creating the feeling that, through
words, ideas can indeed become music.
Memorable are the definitions Leopardi gives of his
Operette morali in the book itself. In the "Dialogo di
Timandro e di Eleandro" not only does he bare his
15. Zibaldone, ed. Flora, I, 1507-08.
16. Ibid., pp. 1145-46, 1216-17.
15

INTRODUCTION
philosophical intentions—by stating that the most use-
ful, and therefore moral, books are the "poetic" ones
("libri destinati a muovere l'immaginazione" [books
destined to move the imagination])—but he searches
deeply into himself to disclose the very nucleus of his
personal meditations and of all his writings:
Lodo ed esalto quelle opinioni, benché false, che
generano atti e pensieri nobili . . . quelle imma-
ginazioni belle e felici, ancorché vane, che danno
pregio alla vita; le illusioni naturali dell'animo.
I praise and exalt those beliefs, though untrue,
which produce noble actions and thoughts . . .
those beautiful and happy images, which, though
empty, make life worthwhile, the natural illu-
sions of the mind.
In this dialogue, originally viewed as both a conclu-
sion to and a justification of the Operette morali, Leo-
pardi speaks to his future readers. He is, in fact, the
Socrates of the "Detti memorabili di Filippo O t -
tonieri" (Memorable Sayings of Filippo Ottonieri)—a
Socrates, however, w h o can speak, not to the ancient
Athenians but to his own contemporaries.
Soon after, he was to discover that neither critics
nor readers would understand him. In fact, they would
reject his "negative" philosophy. Thus, in 1832 he de-
cided to write another conclusion to his book, the " D i -
alogo di Tristano e di un amico," where he bitterly
condemned the blindness of his contemporaries. As to
the Operette morali he said that it was to be considered
merely "come un libro di sogni poetici, d'invenzioni e
di capricci malinconici, ovvero come un'espressione
dell'infelicità dell'autore" (as a book of poetic dreams,
of inventions, and of melancholy whims, or as an ex-
pression of the unhappiness of its author): a work of
poetry, yes, but also a totally private one, intended
16

INTRODUCTION
only for the author to give vent to his own personal
feelings; no longer a work written to reveal to man
"the natural illusions of the mind," which "make life
worthwhile." N o w Leopardi could declare that for
him the "fable of life" was "concluded," that he was
"ripe for death," and that death was his greatest hope.
Se mi fosse proposta da un lato la fortuna e la
fama di Cesare o di Alessandro netta da ogni
macchia, dall'altro di morir oggi, e che dovessi
scegliere, io direi, morir oggi, e non vorrei tempo
a risolvermi.
If I were offered, on the one hand, the fortune
and the fame of Caesar or of Alexander, pure of
all stains, and, on the other, to die today, and if I
were to make a choice, I would say to die today;
and I would not want time to think it over.
He was to live another five years and to berate again
the blindness of his .contemporaries, but that last defi-
nition of the Operette morali and that page of the final
dialogue remain as the testament of a great poet w h o
has finally withdrawn into total isolation.
Pietro Giordani, in his epitaph for Leopardi's tomb
in Naples, defined him as a "Scrittore di filosofia e di
poesia altissimo/da paragonare solamente coi Greci"
(A supreme writer of philosophy and of poetry / to be
compared only with the ancient Greeks). But this ac-
knowledgment of greatness remained without audible
echoes until Francesco D e Sanctis published his first
essays in the 1850s. D e Sanctis examined again various
aspects of the "poet of [his] youth" in the late 1870s
and in the early 1880s. His essays, though generally
emphasizing only the verse at the expense of the prose,
were of fundamental importance in establishing the
position of the poet in the development of Italian liter-

ature. Thus, not only did Leopardi join his two famous
contemporaries, U g o Foscolo and Alessandro Man-
zoni, to constitute the great Romantic triad of Italy—
all three of them rooted in the classical past and at the
same time initiating modern literary traditions—but
he was also accorded his rightful place among the most
celebrated authors of Romantic Europe.
By the end of the last century Leopardi had become
the best-loved poet of Italy. If, because of De Sanctis's
reservations, some critics still had doubts concerning
the greatness of the Operette morali, no one expressed
any uncertainty as to the purity of the poems. It was
left to our own century to produce a new understand-
ing of Leopardi's essays and dialogues and to place
them, in their own genre, on the same level as his
poetry.
As a result of this widespread recognition, Leopardi's
influence on modern Italian literature has been im-
mense. Not only such good but minor figures as Vin-
cenzo Cardarelli, but poets of acknowledged interna-
tional significance such as Umberto Saba, Eugenio
Montale, and especially Giuseppe Ungaretti, have found
in him a model and a master. And outside of Italy his
fame has been steadily growing. At long last Gior-
dani's words are felt to be a true definition of the writer
and are beginning to be taken for granted.
18

G I A C O M O LEOPARDI
Operette Morali

GIACOMO LEOPARDI
Essays and Dialogues

Storia del genere umano
N A R R A S I C H E T U T T I GLI U O M I N I che da principio
popolarono la terra, fossero creati per ogni dove a un
medesimo tempo, e tutti bambini, e fossero nutricati
dalle api, dalle capre e dalle colombe nel modo che i
poeti favoleggiarono dell'educazione di Giove. E che la
terra fosse molto più piccola che ora non è, quasi tutti
i paesi piani, il cielo senza stelle, non fosse creato il
mare, e apparisse nel mondo molto minore varietà e
magnificenza che oggi non vi si scuopre. Ma nondi-
meno gli uomini compiacendosi insaziabilmente di ri-
guardare e di considerare il cielo e la terra, mara-
vigliandosene sopra modo e riputando l'uno e l'altra
bellissimi e, non che vasti, ma infiniti, così di gran-
dezza come di maestà e di leggiadria; pascendosi oltre a
ciò di lietissime speranze, e traendo da ciascun sen-
timento della loro vita incredibili diletti, crescevano
con molto contento, e con poco meno che opinione di
felicità.
Così consumata dolcissimamente la fanciullezza e la
prima adolescenza, e venuti in età più ferma, incomin-
ciarono a provare alcuna mutazione. Perciocché le spe-
ranze, che eglino fino a quel tempo erano andati rimet-
tendo di giorno in giorno, non si riducendo ancora ad
effetto, parve loro che meritassero poca fede; e con-
tentarsi di quello che presentemente godessero, senza
promettersi verun accrescimento di bene, non pareva
loro di potere, massimamente che l'aspetto delle cose
naturali e ciascuna parte della vita giornaliera, o per
l'assuefazione o per essere diminuita nei loro animi
quella prima vivacità, non riusciva loro di gran lunga
così dilettevole e grata come a principio. Andavano per

History of the Human Race
W E ARE T O L D that all men who in the beginning pop-
ulated the earth were created everywhere at the same
time, all children, and that they were nourished by
bees, goats, and doves in the manner poets have nar-
rated in their fables about the nurturing of Jove; and
that the earth was much smaller than it is now, with
almost all its regions flat, and the sky without stars, and
the sea still uncreated; and thus the world displayed
much less variety and splendor than is now seen. Nev-
ertheless, men found inexhaustible joy in watching and
considering heaven and earth with immeasurable won-
der, seeing both as extremely beautiful and not only
vast, but infinite in range as well as in majesty and
beauty. They were also filled with the most joyous
hopes and drew incredible pleasure from every sensa-
tion of their lives, thereby growing up very contented
and with a feeling of almost complete happiness.
But after most delightfully spending their childhood
and adolescence, as they reached a more mature age,
they began to experience certain changes. It seemed to
them that they could not put much faith in their hopes,
for, although they had waited from day to day for
them to come to fruition, there had been no results.
Nor could they feel that it was possible for them to be
satisfied with their present enjoyment without antic-
ipating any augmentation of their well-being—espe-
cially in view of the fact that either because of habit or
because of a decrease in their minds' original vivacity,
the aspects of natural things and each part of their own
daily lives were no longer as delightful and gratifying
as in the beginning. They wandered about the earth,

STORIA DEL GENERE U M A N O
la terra visitando lontanissime contrade, poiché lo po-
tevano fare agevolmente, per essere i luoghi piani, e
non divisi da mari, nè impediti da altre difficoltà; e
dopo non molti anni, i più di loro si avvidero che la
terra, ancorché grande, aveva termini certi, e non così
larghi che fossero incomprensibili; e che tutti i luoghi
di essa terra e tutti gli uomini, salvo leggerissime dif-
ferenze, erano conformi gli uni agli altri. Per le quali
cose cresceva la loro mala contentezza di modo che essi
non erano ancora usciti della gioventù, che un espresso
fastidio dell'esser loro gli aveva universalmente oc-
cupati. E di mano in mano nell'età virile, e maggior-
mente in sul declinare degli anni, convertita la sazietà
in odio, alcuni vennero in sì fatta disperazione, che non
sopportando la luce e lo spirito, che nel primo tempo
avevano avuti in tanto amore, spontaneamente, quale
in uno e quale in altro modo, se ne privarono.
Parve orrendo questo caso agli Dei, che da creature
viventi la morte fosse preposta alla vita, e che questa
medesima in alcun suo proprio soggetto, senza forza di
necessità e senza altro concorso, fosse instrumento a
disfarlo. Nè si può facilmente dire quanto si maravi-
gliassero che i loro doni fossero tenuti così vili ed ab-
bominevoli, che altri dovesse con ogni sua forza spo-
gliarseli e rigettarli; parendo loro aver posta nel mondo
tanta bontà e vaghezza, e tali ordini e condizioni, che
quella stanza avesse ad essere, non che tollerata, ma
sommamente amata da qualsivoglia animale, e dagli
uomini massimamente, il qual genere avevano formato
con singolare studio a maravigliosa eccellenza. Ma nel
medesimo tempo, oltre all'essere tocchi da non me-
diocre pietà di tanta miseria umana quanta manifesta-
vasi dagli effetti, dubitavano eziandio che rinnovandosi
e moltiplicandosi quei tristi esempi, la stirpe umana fra
poca età, contro l'ordine dei fati, venisse a perire, e le
cose fossero private di quella perfezione che risultava
24

HISTORY OF THE H U M A N RACE
visiting the most remote areas, which they could do
easily because the land was flat and not divided by seas
or interrupted by other obstacles; and after a few years
most found that the earth, though large, had definite
limits, which were not so broad as to be incomprehen-
sible; and that all the areas of the earth itself and all
men were alike, except for very slight differences. This
caused their discontent to increase so much that even
before the end of their youth they became universally
filled with utter distaste for their own existence. And
gradually in their manhood, and still more so in their
declining years, as satiety turned to hatred, some of
them came into such a state of despair that, in one way
or another, spontaneously they deprived themselves of
that light and breath that in the beginning they had
loved so much but now could no longer endure.
To the gods it seemed monstrous that living crea-
tures should want death rather than life and that life it-
self should become an instrument of its own destruc-
tion in any of its subjects without necessity or other
compelling cause. It is not easy to say how they mar-
veled that their gifts should be considered so vile and
abominable that men should use all their power to re-
nounce and reject them. They thought that they had
put in the world so much good and beauty and such
conditions and order that this abode should be not
merely endured but ardently loved by all animals and,
above all, by man, whom they had fashioned with par-
ticular care into a marvel of excellence. But at the same
time, in addition to feeling more than a little compas-
sion for the human misery that the recent events had
shown, they also feared that if those grim examples
were repeated and multiplied, shortly and against the
orders of destiny, the human race would perish, thereby
depriving creation of the perfection which it drew
25

STORIA DEL GENERE UMANO
loro dal nostro genere, ed essi di quegli onori che
ricevevano dagli uomini.
Deliberato per tanto Giove di migliorare, poiché
parea che si richiedesse, lo stato umano, e d'indiriz-
zarlo alla felicità con maggiori sussidi, intendeva che
gli uomini si querelavano principalmente che le cose
non fossero immense di grandezza, nè infinite di beltà,
di perfezione e di varietà, come essi da prima avevano
giudicato; anzi essere angustissime, tutte imperfette, e
pressoché di una forma; e che dolendosi non solo del-
l'età provetta, ma della matura, e della medesima gio-
ventù, e desiderando le dolcezze dei loro primi anni,
pregavano ferventemente di essere tornati nella fan-
ciullezza, e in quella perseverare tutta la loro vita. Della
qual cosa non potea Giove soddisfarli, essendo con-
traria alle leggi universali della natura, ed a quegli uffici
e quelle utilità che gli uomini dovevano, secondo l'in-
tenzione e i decreti divini, esercitare e produrre. Nè an-
che poteva comunicare la propria infinità colle creature
mortali, nè fare la materia infinita, nè infinita la per-
fezione e la felicità delle cose e degli uomini.
Ben gli parve conveniente di propagare i termini del
creato, e di maggiormente adornarlo e distinguerlo: e
preso questo consiglio, ringrandì la terra d'ogn'in-
torno, e v'infuse il mare, acciocché interponendosi ai
luoghi abitati, diversificasse la sembianza delle cose, e
impedisse che i confini loro non potessero facilmente
essere conosciuti dagli uomini, interrompendo i cam-
mini, ed anche rappresentando agli occhi una viva si-
militudine dell'immensità. Nel qual tempo occupa-
rono le nuove acque la terra Atlantide, non sola essa,
ma insieme altri innumerabili e distesissimi tratti,
benché di quella resti memoria speciale, sopravvissuta
alla moltitudine dei secoli. Molti luoghi depresse,
molti ricolmò suscitando i monti e le colline, cosperse
la notte di stelle, rassottigliò e ripurgò la natura dell'a-

from our kind and themselves of those honors they re-
ceived from men.
Jove decided, therefore, to improve the human con-
dition, for an improvement appeared necessary, and to
give it greater means to attain happiness. Men, he un-
derstood, complained chiefly that things were not as
immense in greatness nor as infinite in beauty, perfec-
tion, and variety as they had originally thought; in
fact, they were all very limited, imperfect, and uni-
form. Lamenting not only their old age but their ma-
turity and their youth itself and longing for the de-
lights of their early years, men ardently prayed to be
returned to childhood and to remain in it all their lives.
Jove, however, could not grant this, for it was against
the universal laws of nature and against those functions
and purposes that, in accordance with divine decrees,
men had to exercise and fulfill. Neither could he share
his own infinity with mortal creatures nor make mat-
ter or the perfection and happiness of things and men
infinite.
But he thought it expedient to extend the limits of
creation and to adorn it and vary it further. And having
thus resolved, he enlarged the earth on all sides and
poured into it the sea, which, by lying between inhab-
ited areas and by cutting off roads, would diversify the
appearance of things and would prevent their limits
from being easily discovered by men, and it would
also present to the eye a living semblance of immen-
sity. It was then that the new waters occupied not only
the land of Atlantis but other innumerable and very
extensive regions, although of Atlantis there remains a
special memory that survives the multitude of cen-
turies. Many areas he depressed, and many others he
lifted by raising up the mountains and the hills; he
strewed the night with stars; he refined and purified
the nature of the air; he increased the clarity and the

ria ed accrebbe il giorno di chiarezza e di luce, rinforzò
e contemperò più diversamente che per l'addietro i co-
lori del cielo e delle campagne, confuse le generazioni
degli uomini in guisa che la vecchiezza degli uni con-
corresse in un medesimo tempo coll'altrui giovanezza e
puerizia. E risolutosi di moltiplicare le apparenze di
quell'infinito che gli uomini sommamente desidera-
vano (dappoi che egli non li poteva compiacere della
sostanza), e volendo favorire e pascere le coloro im-
maginazioni, dalla virtù delle quali principalmente
comprendeva essere proceduta quella tanta beatitudine
della loro fanciullezza; fra i molti espedienti che pose in
opera (siccome fu quello del mare), creato l'eco, lo
nascose nelle valli e nelle spelonche, e mise nelle selve
uno strepito sordo e profondo, con un vasto ondeggia-
mento delle loro cime. Creò similmente il popolo de'
sogni, e commise loro che ingannando sotto più forme
il pensiero degli uomini, figurassero loro quella pie-
nezza di non intelligibile felicità, che egli non vedeva
modo a ridurre in atto, e quelle immagini perplesse e
indeterminate, delle quali esso medesimo, se bene
avrebbe voluto farlo, e gli uomini lo sospiravano ar-
dentemente, non poteva produrre alcun esempio reale.
Fu per questi provvedimenti di Giove ricreato ed
eretto l'animo degli uomini, e rintegrata in ciascuno di
loro la grazia e la carità della vita, non altrimenti che
l'opinione, il diletto e lo stupore della bellezza e del-
l'immensità delle cose terrene. E durò questo buono
stato più lungamente che il primo, massime per la dif-
ferenza del tempo introdotta da Giove nei nascimenti,
sicché gli animi freddi e stanchi per l'esperienza delle
cose, erano confortati vedendo il calore e le speranze
dell'età verde. Ma in progresso di tempo tornata a
mancare affatto la novità, e risorto e riconfermato il te-
dio e la disistima della vita, si ridussero gli uomini in
tale abbattimento, che nacque allora, come si crede, il

light of day; he strengthened and blended the colors of
the sky and of the countryside with greater variety; he
mingled the generations of men so that the old age of
some would coincide with the youth and the child-
hood of others. And since men desired the infinite
more than anything else and he could not grant them
the substance, he decided to multiply its appearances
and to foster and nourish their imaginations, from
which he understood they had derived the great bliss
of their childhood. Thus, among the many expedients
he adopted—such as the sea—he created the echo and
hid it in the valleys and in the caverns and filled the
forests with a hollow and profound clamor and a vast
swaying of the tree tops. He also created the brood of
dreams and charged them with deluding in many ways
the minds of men and with thus making visible to
them that plenitude of unintelligible happiness which
he could in no way create and those vague and per-
plexed images of which he could not produce any live
examples, no matter how much he wanted to or how
ardently men yearned for them.
By these provisions of Jove's, the spirit of man was
refreshed and uplifted, and in everyone was restored
the zest and love for life so that once more they found
real pleasure and wonder in the beauty and the immen-
sity of earthly things. And this condition lasted longer
than the first mainly because of the intervals intro-
duced by Jove between the times of birth so that the
spirits of men, grown cold and weary by experience,
were comforted by the sight of the warmth and the
hopes of young age. But in the course of time, as the
novelty wore off and the tedium and contempt of life
returned and reasserted themselves, men sank into
such depression that, as is believed and as is recorded in
29

costume riferito nelle storie come praticato da alcuni
popoli antichi che lo serbarono, che nascendo alcuno,
si congregavano i parenti e loro amici a piangerlo; e
morendo, era celebrato quel giorno con feste e ragio-
namenti che si facevano congratulandosi coll'estinto.
All'ultimo tutti i mortali si volsero all'empietà, o che
paresse loro di non essere ascoltati da Giove, o essendo
propria natura delle miserie indurare e corrompere gli
animi eziandio più bennati, e disamorarli dell'onesto e
del retto. Perciocché s'ingannano a ogni modo coloro i
quali stimano essere nata primieramente l'infelicità
umana dall'iniquità e dalle cose commesse contro agli
Dei; ma per lo contrario non d'altronde ebbe principio
la malvagità degli uomini che dalle loro calamità.
Ora poiché fu punita dagli Dei col diluvio di Deu-
calione la protervia dei mortali e presa vendetta delle
ingiurie, i due soli scampati dal naufragio universale
del nostro genere, Deucalione e Pirra, affermando seco
medesimi niuna cosa potere maggiormente giovare alla
stirpe umana che di essere al tutto spenta, sedevano in
cima a una rupe chiamando la morte con efficacissimo
desiderio, non che temessero nè deplorassero il fato
comune. Non per tanto, ammoniti da Giove di ripa-
rare alla solitudine della terra; e non sostenendo, come
erano sconfortati e disdegnosi della vita, di dare opera
alla generazione; tolto delle pietre della montagna, se-
condo che dagli Dei fu mostrato loro, e gittatosele
dopo le spalle, restaurarono la specie umana. Ma Giove
fatto accorto, per le cose passate, della propria natura
degli uomini, e che non può loro bastare, come agli al-
tri animali, vivere ed essere liberi da ogni dolore e mo-
lestia del corpo; anzi, che bramando sempre e in
qualunque stato l'impossibile, tanto più si travagliano
con questo desiderio da se medesimi, quanto meno
30

history, it was then that among some ancient peoples
the custom began whereby, when a child was born,
relatives and friends would gather together to mourn
him; and when someone died, the day was celebrated
with festivities and speeches congratulating the de-
ceased. Finally, all mortals turned to impiety—whether
because they thought Jove was not listening to them or
because it is in the very nature of misery to harden and
corrupt even the highest-born spirits and to alienate
them from honesty and goodness. For wrong are those
who believe that human unhappiness was originally
born of iniquity and of the offenses committed against
the gods; but on the contrary, the wickedness of men
originated from their calamities and not from any other
source.
After the gods had punished the insolence of the
mortals with the deluge of Deucalion and had taken
vengeance for their offenses, the only two survivors of
that universal cataclysm of our species, Deucalion and
Pyrrha, declared to themselves that nothing could be
more beneficial to the human race than its total extinc-
tion. They sat on the top of a cliff and called death with
the most vehement desire—so little did they fear or
deplore the common destiny.' Nevertheless, they were
admonished by Jove to provide a remedy for the soli-
tude of the earth, but disconsolate and disdainful of life
as they were, they found it impossible to begin gener-
ating. So they took stones from the mountain, and, ac-
cording to the instructions of the gods, they cast them
over their shoulders and thus restored the human race.
But through what had happened in the past Jove had
become aware of the true nature of men: that it is not
enough for them, as it is for the other animals, to live
and be free of all physical pain and discomfort; rather,
always and in every condition, they crave the impossi-
ble, and the less they are afflicted by other evils, the

sono afflitti dagli altri mali; deliberò valersi di nuove
arti a conservare questo misero genere: le quali furono
principalmente due. L'una mescere la loro vita di mali
veri; l'altra implicarla in mille negozi e fatiche, ad
effetto d'intrattenere gli uomini, e divertirli quanto più
si potesse dal conversare col proprio animo, o almeno
col desiderio di quella loro incognita e vana felicità.
Quindi primieramente diffuse tra loro una varia
moltitudine di morbi e un infinito genere di altre sven-
ture: parte volendo, col variare le condizioni e le for-
tune della vita mortale, ovviare alla sazietà e crescere
colla opposizione dei mali il pregio de' beni; parte ac-
ciocché il difetto dei godimenti riuscisse agli spiriti
esercitati in cose peggiori, molto più comportabile che
non aveva fatto per lo passato; e parte eziandio con in-
tendimento di rompere e mansuefare la ferocia degli
uomini, ammaestrarli a piegare il collo e cedere alla
necessità, ridurli a potersi più facilmente appagare della
propria sorte, e rintuzzare negli animi affievoliti non
meno dalle infermità del corpo che dai travagli propri,
l'acume e la veemenza del desiderio. Oltre di questo,
conosceva dovere avvenire che gli uomini oppressi dai
morbi e dalle calamità, fossero meno pronti che per
l'addietro a volgere le mani contra se stessi, perocché
sarebbero incodarditi e prostrati di cuore, come inter-
viene per l'uso dei patimenti. I quali sogliono anche,
lasciando luogo alle speranze migliori, allacciare gli
animi alla vita: imperciocché gl'infelici hanno ferma
opinione che eglino sarebbero felicissimi quando si
riavessero dei propri mali; la qual cosa, come è la na-
tura dell'uomo, non mancano mai di sperare che debba
loro succedere in qualche modo.
Appresso creò le tempeste dei venti e dei nembi, si
armò del tuono e del fulmine, diede a Nettuno il tri-
32

HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE
more they torment themselves with their desire. He
decided, therefore, to have recourse to. chiefly two new
expedients for preserving this miserable species. One
was to pour real evils into their lives, the other to in-
volve men in a thousand activities and a thousand toils
so as to occupy them and divert them as much as pos-
sible from communing with their own minds—or at
least with that desire of theirs for an unknown and im-
palpable happiness.
Thus, he first spread among them a multitude of
different diseases and an infinite number of other mis-
fortunes: partly because by varying the conditions and
the fortunes of mortal life, he intended to avert satiety
and increase the value of the good by contrasting it
with the evil; partly so that to those accustomed to suf-
fering, the lack of pleasures would prove more tolera-
ble than in the past; and partly also with the intent of
breaking and taming the ferocity of men, of training
them to bow their heads and yield to necessity, of re-
ducing them to the point where they would be more
easily satisfied with their lot, of blunting the sharpness
and vehemence of desire in spirits weakened as much
by physical infirmities as by their own anguish. He
also knew that it would happen that men, oppressed
by diseases and calamities, would be less ready than in
the past to turn against themselves because they would
be cowardly and prostrate in spirit, as results from the
habit of suffering. Also, suffering kindles the best hopes
and thus binds men's spirits to life, for the unhappy are
firmly convinced that they would be extremely happy
if they could recover from their afflictions, and, as is
the nature of man, they never cease hoping that this
will in some way take place.
Next he created the storms of wind and rain; he
armed himself with thunder and lightning; he gave
Neptune the trident; he set the comets whirling about

dente, spinse le comete in giro e ordinò le eclissi; colle
quali cose e con altri segni ed effetti terribili, instituì di
spaventare i mortali di tempo in tempo: sapendo che il
timore e i presenti pericoli riconcilierebbero alla vita,
almeno per breve ora, non tanto gl'infelici, ma quelli
eziandio che l'avessero in maggiore abbominio, e che
fossero più disposti a fuggirla.
E per escludere la passata oziosità, indusse nel ge-
nere umano il bisogno e l'appetito di nuovi cibi e di
nuove bevande, le quali cose non senza molta e grave
fatica si potessero provvedere, laddove insino al di-
luvio gli uomini, dissetandosi delle sole acque, si erano
pasciuti delle erbe e delle frutta che la terra e gli arbori
somministravano loro spontaneamente, e di altre nu-
triture vili e facili a procacciare, siccome usano di sos-
tentarsi anche oggidì alcuni popoli, e particolarmente
quelli di California. Assegnò ai diversi luoghi diverse
qualità celesti, e similmente alle parti dell'anno, il quale
insino a quel tempo era stato sempre e in tutta la terra
benigno e piacevole in modo, che gli uomini non ave-
vano avuto uso di vestimenti; ma di questi per l'in-
nanzi furono costretti a fornirsi, e con molte industrie
riparare alle mutazioni e inclemenze del cielo. Impose
a Mercurio che fondasse le prime città, e distinguesse
il genere umano in popoli, nazioni e lingue, ponendo
gara e discordia tra loro; e che mostrasse agli uomini il
canto e quelle altre arti, che sì per la natura e sì per
l'origine, furono chiamate, e ancora si chiamano, di-
vine. Esso medesimo diede leggi, stati e ordini civili
alle nuove genti; e in ultimo volendo con un incom-
parabile dono beneficarle, mandò tra loro alcuni fan-
tasmi di sembianze eccellentissime e soprumane, ai
quali permise in grandissima parte il governo e la po-
testà di esse genti: e furono chiamati Giustizia, Virtù,
Gloria, Amor patrio e con altri sì fatti nomi. Tra i quali
34

HISTORY OF THE HUMAN RACE
and ordered the eclipses. With these things and with
other portents and terrifying phenomena, he resolved
to frighten mortals from time to time; for he knew that
fear and imminent dangers would reconcile to life, at
least briefly, not so much the unhappy as those who
most abhorred it and would be most inclined to flee it.
And to preclude the former indolence, he implanted
in the human race the need and the appetite for new
kinds of food and drink, which they could not provide
for themselves without much heavy toil; whereas be-
fore the deluge men had quenched their thirst only
with water and had fed on the herbs and fruits that the
earth and the trees ministered to them spontaneously
and on other coarse nourishments that were easy to
procure, such as even nowadays some peoples are used
to living upon—and in particular those of California.2
He assigned to different areas different climatic condi-
tions and similarly to the different parts of the year,
which until then had always been benign and pleasant
all over the earth, so much so that men had not had any
need for clothing; but from then on they had to pro-
vide it for themselves, and with great industriousness
they had to counter the mutations and the inclemencies
of the weather.
He commanded Mercury to found the first cities
and to divide the human race into peoples, nations, and
languages, thus introducing rivalry and discord among
them, and to instruct men in singing and in those other
arts which, both because of their nature and of their
origin, were and still are called divine. He himself es-
tablished laws, conditions, and civil ordinances for the
new peoples; and finally, to bless them with an incom-
parable gift, he sent among them certain idols, most
exalted and superhuman in appearance, to whom he
granted government and power over those peoples.
They were called Justice, Virtue, Glory, Patriotism,

fantasmi fu medesimamente uno chiamato Amore, che
in quel tempo primieramente, siccome anco gli altri,
venne in terra: perciocché innanzi all'uso dei vesti-
menti, non amore, ma impeto di cupidità, non dis-
simile negli uomini di allora da quello che fu di ogni
tempo nei bruti, spingeva l'un sesso verso l'altro, nella
guisa che è tratto ciascuno ai cibi e a simili oggetti, i
quali non si amano veramente, ma si appetiscono.
Fu cosa mirabile quanto frutto partorissero questi
divini consigli alla vita mortale, e quanto la nuova con-
dizione degli uomini, non ostante le fatiche, gli spa-
venti e i dolori, cose per l'addietro ignorate dal nostro
genere, superasse di comodità e di dolcezza quelle che
erano state innanzi al diluvio. E questo effetto pro-
venne in gran parte da quelle maravigliose larve; le
quali dagli uomini furono riputate ora geni ora iddii, e
seguite e eulte con ardore inestimabile e con vaste e
portentose fatiche per lunghissima età; infiammandoli
a questo dal canto loro con infinito sforzo i poeti e i
nobili artefici; tanto che un grandissimo numero di
mortali non dubitarono chi all'uno e chi all'altro di
quei fantasmi donare e sacrificare il sangue e la vita
propria. La qual cosa, non che fosse discara a Giove,
anzi piacevagli sopra modo, così per altri rispetti,
come che egli giudicava dovere essere gli uomini tanto
meno facili a gittare volontariamente la vita, quanto
più fossero pronti a spenderla per cagioni belle e glo-
riose. Anche di durata questi buoni ordini eccedettero
grandemente i superiori; poiché quantunque venuti
dopo molti secoli in manifesto abbassamento, non-
dimeno eziandio declinando e poscia precipitando, val-
sero in guisa, che fino all'entrare di un'età non molto
rimota dalla presente, la vita umana, la quale per virtù
di quegli ordini era stata già, massime in alcun tempo,
quasi gioconda, si mantenne per beneficio loro medio-
cremente facile e tollerabile.

and other such names. Among these idols there was
also one called Love, who, like the others, then came
to earth for the first time; for before the use of cloth-
ing, one sex was driven toward the other by an im-
pulse of desire not different from what has always gov-
erned animals, and not by love—very much like what
draws everyone toward food and similar things, which
are not really loved but craved.
It was marvelous how much fruit these divine coun-
sels bore for human life, and, notwithstanding toil,
fright, and suffering—all things previously unknown
—how much the condition of man surpassed in com-
fort and pleasure the one existing before the deluge. To
a great extent this was the result of those wondrous
phantoms that by men were reputed either genii or
gods and were followed and worshipped with incredi-
ble fervor and with vast and portentous toil for a very
long period of years. Men were inflamed, with infinite
effort, by poets and other noble artists, so much so that
a very large number of mortals did not hesitate to offer
and sacrifice their blood and their lives to one or to the
other of such idols. Far from offending Jove, this pleased
him exceedingly—if for no other reason than that he
judged men to be so much less inclined to throw away
their lives voluntarily than they were ready to expend
them for noble and glorious causes. Even in duration
those good provisions greatly surpassed the preceding
ones; for although after many centuries they fell into
apparent decay, nonetheless, in spite of their declining
and failing, their effectiveness was such that until a
time fairly close to our own, and thanks to them, hu-
man life, which, especially at one time, had been al-
most joyful, remained fairly easy and tolerable.
37

Le cagioni e i modi del loro alterarsi furono i molti
ingegni trovati dagli uomini per provvedere agevol-
mente e con poco tempo ai propri bisogni; lo smisu-
rato accrescimento della disparità di condizioni e di
uffici constituita da Giove tra gli uomini quando fondò
e dispose le prime repubbliche; l'oziosità e la vanità che
per queste cagioni, di nuovo, dopo antichissimo esilio,
occuparono la vita; l'essere, non solo per la sostanza
delle cose, ma ancora da altra parte per l'estimazione
degli uomini, venuta a scemarsi in essa vita la grazia
della varietà, come sempre suole per la lunga con-
suetudine; e finalmente le altre cose più gravi, le quali
per essere già descritte e dichiarate da molti, non ac-
cade ora distinguere. Certo negli uomini si rinnovellò
quel fastidio delle cose loro che gli aveva travagliati
avanti il diluvio, e rinfrescossi quell'amaro desiderio di
felicità ignota ed aliena dalla natura dell'universo.
Ma il totale rivolgimento della loro fortuna e l'ul-
timo esito di quello stato che oggi siamo soliti di chia-
mare antico, venne principalmente da una cagione di-
versa dalle predette: e fu questa. Era tra quelle larve,
tanto apprezzate dagli antichi, una chiamata nelle cos-
toro lingue Sapienza; la quale onorata universalmente
come tutte le sue compagne, e seguita in particolare da
molti, aveva altresì al pari di quelle conferito per la sua
parte alla prosperità dei secoli scorsi. Questa più e più
volte, anzi quotidianamente, aveva promesso e giurato
ai seguaci suoi di voler loro mostrare la Verità, la quale
diceva ella essere un genio grandissimo, e sua propria
signora, nè mai venuta in sulla terra, ma sedere cogli
Dei nel cielo; donde essa prometteva che coll'autorità
e grazia propria intendeva di trarla, e di ridurla per
qualche spazio di tempo a peregrinare tra gli uomini:
per l'uso e per la familiarità della quale, dovere il ge-
nere umano venire in sì fatti termini, che di altezza di
38

The deterioration was due to these reasons: the many
devices men discovered to provide easily and speedily
for their needs; the excessive increase in the disparity
of conditions and functions that Jove instituted among
them when he founded and ordered the first republics;
the slothfulness and emptiness that, through these
causes, again invaded life after their ancient banish-
ment; the fact that, owing to both the essence of things
and the estimation of men, the appeal of variety in life
itself had lessened—as is always the case with long fa-
miliarity; and, finally, the other graver matters which
have already been presented and expounded by many,
and which therefore we need not to dwell upon any
further. It is certain that men again experienced that
distaste for their affairs by which they had been af-
flicted before the deluge and felt afresh the bitter desire
for that happiness which is unknown and alien to the
nature of the universe.
But the complete reversal of their fortune and the
end of that state which we now usually call ancient
arose mainly from a cause that is different from the
preceding ones, and it was this: among those phan-
toms so greatly valued by the ancients there was one
called in their languages Wisdom, who had been uni-
versally honored like her companions and had been
especially followed by many; like the others she had
contributed her share to the prosperity of the past cen-
turies. Repeatedly, in fact daily, she had promised and
vowed to her followers that she would show them
Truth, who she said was a very great spirit and her
own master, who had never come to earth but was sit-
ting with the gods in heaven, and whom she promised
to bring down of her own authority and grace and in-
duce to walk for some time among men. By associa-
tion and by familiarity with her, the human race would
reach such a point that in depth of knowledge, in ex-

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A shell pitches without bursting: Unconsciousness; stupor;
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Case 321. (Lattes and Goria, March, 1917.)
An Italian soldier of the Class of ’95, a mechanic (mother cardiac;
as a boy, pains in joints and heart; since boyhood, no illness), had a
big Austrian shell pitch near him, July 23, 1915. The shell failed to
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days, quite immobile. This event followed an advance by his
company under very fatiguing circumstances without sleep for a
period of four days.
July 26, the patient was observed in profound stupor, non-
reactive, constantly and monotonously repeating the phrase, Mama
mia!, with fixed gaze and smiling as if at visions. He swallowed food.
The pupils reacted poorly to light, and the cornea and nasal mucosa
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muscles were hypotonic; bradycardia, 56; no control over feces or
urine.
July 27-28, restlessness at night, gasping movements, and poses
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July 29, he called for his mother, who had been dead for several
years. He was still stuporous and insensible.
From August 1 to 10, he improved slowly and became able to
carry bread to his mouth after it had been put in his hands. He still
did not speak and made signs when he wished to urinate or
defecate. Pulse 50-60.

August 12, the patient began to react to intense light and to pain
stimuli, as well as to pressure. He ate voraciously.
August 15, visual stimuli were responded to, the pulse had risen to
80, the skin reflexes were no less lively. There began to be terrifying
dreams at night, with motor reactions.
August 17, the patient looked about more alertly, promptly seeing
bread when placed in the center of the field of vision and saying
words to the man who might try to remove the bread. He did not yet
react to acoustic stimuli, nor was there any other change up to
August 21.
August 22 a notable improvement set in. The hearing was now
slightly diminished, questions were answered after a brief refractory
period. After a few questions, however, a state of exhaustion would
ensue, which would disappear only after a short rest. There was
amnesia for the entire period following the day of his departure for
the front, May, 1915. At this time, instead of eating voraciously, he
showed anorexia. The skin and tendon reflexes, instead of being
lively, were now dull. There still were battle dreams of enemies
trying to kill him.
August 25, there was an area of hypesthesia on the inner aspect
of the right thigh, but otherwise no disorder of sensation. The pulse
stood at 80 and there were no other neurological phenomena.
August 31, the patch of hypesthesia of the thigh and the
retrograde amnesia disappeared. There was still a slight diminution
of hearing. The accident of the non-exploding bomb could now be
recalled, but there was a memory gap for all facts up to the latter
part of August.
September 2, dreamless sleep; no signs of abnormality except a
slight diminution of hearing. Discharged, well.

Jostled carrying explosives; no explosion; unconsciousness:
Deafmutism and foggy vision. Gradual recovery from these
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An Italian of the Class of 1891 (convulsions and pains in the spine,
with rigidity, as a child; typhoid fever at 18; brother sickly,
neuropathic; mother subject to periodic convulsions; father alcoholic
and nervous), on the night of November 26, 1915, was carrying a
number of tubes of explosives. A comrade stumbled and fell over the
soldier, who fell to the ground unconscious. None of the glycerine
tubes exploded, and none of the soldiers round about were hurt.
The man regained consciousness at the camp hospital, but
remained deafmute and also impaired as to vision. It was as if a
screen of fog lay between him and objects seen.
During fifteen days of observation at the camp hospital, he had
terrible war nightmares. The mutism, the visual disorder, and the
deafness then gradually disappeared without special treatment.
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along the vertebrae, especially on pressure. X-ray examination
showed no bone lesion. The larynx and cornea were sensitive, and
the plantar reflexes were absent. The abdominal reflexes were
present. The pupils reacted to light and accommodation. There were
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A heavy cannon slides and grazes a man: Unconsciousness;
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recovery in less than seven weeks.
An Italian soldier of the Class of 1895, a peasant (family healthy;
non-alcoholic; good scholar) was, July 19, 1915, helping drag a
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the patient, making a slight abrasion on his leg. He immediately lost
consciousness, and arrived at the camp hospital in a stupor, which
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A week later he was observed in hospital, immobile and non-
reactive, with a swollen abdomen and fecal impaction. The pupils
were widely dilated and reacted poorly to light. The corneal reflexes
were absent, and the nasal mucosa was anesthetic. Pulse 50. The
patient failed to eat. Next day there was no change in his condition.
He was quiet throughout the night.
On the morning of July 29, a number of answers were obtained to
questions put in a loud voice, though he was unaware of much more
than his name, being ignorant of the name of his country, his age,
his division, where he had come from, what had happened to him,
or where he was. He had now begun to eat spontaneously.
During the following days, up to August 4, the amnesia gradually
dissolved for the facts before the trauma. He remembered having
been greatly frightened at the time of the accident but could not
remember the accident itself, and the gap for subsequent events
was still complete. The pharyngeal reflex was still poor. August 5, he
began to remember the details concerning the accident. About the

middle of August there was no longer any diminution of hearing and
ideation became more free and rapid.
September 4, he was discharged, well.

Shell explosions SEEN: Emotion; insomnia. Artillery HEARD
twelve days later: “finished off.”
Case 324. (Wiltshire, June, 1916.)
A lance-corporal, 36, had had a nervous debility four or five years
before the war, caused by an overstudy of music. He had not
stopped work at that time, but suffered from depression, anorexia,
and insomnia, lasting for some weeks.
The lance-corporal got on well at the front for 11 weeks, until
finally eight shells pitched near him. Although he was unhurt, he
began to suffer from anorexia, insomnia, and depression. While in
billets 12 days later, some English artillery became heavily engaged,
whereupon “The noise promptly finished me off.” The insomnia,
depression, and anorexia became more marked, and the patient
could not sleep unless heavily drugged.

Shell-shock: Emotion. More shells: Insomnia; war dreams.
Head tremor and tic, two weeks after initial shock.
Case 325. (Wiltshire, June, 1916.)
The psychic trauma is, according to Wiltshire, more important than
physical trauma in the following case of a sergeant of infantry, 28, a
man without neuropathic taint. This man had been nine months at
the front and through Mons, but had been quite well until three
weeks before coming to hospital.
“Twenty-three days ago, I was issuing rations when they got the
range of us—and killed the other chaps. I got blown away and
knocked over. I saw everything—fellows in pieces. Then a second
shell came. I got lifted and knocked about ten yards.” Then he
began to shake but carried on.
Two days later, “Shells dropped on the dug-out and killed the
other chaps. I have not slept properly since this. If I go to sleep, I
wake up seeing people killed, shells dropping, and all kinds of horrid
dreams about war.” One or two of the men killed had been pals.
A fortnight after the first incident, while in a base hospital, head-
shaking began. The patient would jump at the least sound. There
were spasmodic tic movements with the extension of the head,
protrusion of lower jaw, and contraction of occipitofrontalis muscle.
Sometimes the left shoulder girdle was affected in the same way.
There was a slight fine tremor of hands and eyelids and difficulty in
keeping the eyes fixed on an object.

Hyperthyroidism, hemiplegia, irritative symptoms after
exhaustion (by heat?).
Case 326. (Oppenheim, February, 1915.)
A man (not previously nervous, no faulty heredity, heatstroke
August 21) suddenly fell down in a great heat, after a fatiguing
march, and remained unconscious for several hours, waking with
vertigo, headache, paralysis of left side, vomiting, and twitching of
the face. On September 23, admitted to reserve hospital. Knee
phenomenon increased. Urinary retention; catheter used. Speech
disturbance, facial twitching. Vomiting had stopped September 10.
Catheterization could be avoided through warm sitz-baths. October
30, on sitting up, occipital pain and vertigo. November 15, urinary
symptoms improved. Also improvement otherwise. December 1, gait
vacillating and uncertain. Headache. Admission to nerve hospital,
December 3. Here complained of twitchings in the frontals and
corrugators. Wide palpebral gaps. Rare, or absent, movements of
lids. The extended hands showed active, rapid tremor. Tendon
phenomena increased in the arms and especially in the legs.
Abdominal reflexes increased. Active tremor in the legs. Gluteal
tremor. Very pronounced Graves’ symptoms. Syndactylism very
pronounced in the feet, between second and third toes. Later on,
improvement under half-baths, etc. Worse after ten days’ leave of
absence, especially marked increase of tremor (rest tremor),
augmented on movement.
Re heat stroke, Wollenberg has called attention to the effect of the
heat of the summer months upon German soldiers. Cases of heat
stroke have not been rare in the German army. About half the cases
have convulsions or epileptoid seizures, as well as tremors and

nystagmus. About a quarter of the cases have shown confusion and
delusions, with anxiety and mania. A degree of mental impairment
has followed a number of these heat strokes, together with sundry
signs of organic disorder, such as reflex changes, pupillary changes,
and difficulty in speech.

Forced marches; skirmishes; rheumatism: Generalized
TREMORS. On the road to recovery in six months.
Case 327. (Binswanger, July, 1915.)
A German letter carrier, 27, entered the war at the outset, made
forced marches in great heat, was in a number of skirmishes and in
the capture of Namur, and fell ill early in September, with swollen
and painful right foot and rheumatic pains in knees and shoulders.
He was put on garrison duty; but the rheumatic pains in the joints
increased toward the end of September, and he was treated in
hospital for rheumatism.
He became able to walk only in the second half of December,
marked tremors affecting the whole body. His bodily condition had
been good. He slept well, and while at rest in bed he felt entirely
well; but upon every attempt to get up and put his feet down, these
violent trembling motions would always reappear. Treatment by
hydro- and electrotherapy remained entirely unsuccessful. February
8 he was transferred to a nerve hospital.
He had been in the postal service from 1903. He was of normal
bodily and mental development and had had no previous illnesses.
His military service had been executed from 1909 to 1911. He had
always been a passionate smoker but had not abused alcohol. His
mother is said to have been for some time paralyzed, following a
fright.
Physically, the patient was a slender but strongly-built and fairly
well-nourished soldier. The first sound at the apex of the heart was
rough and impure, and the heart was somewhat enlarged to the left.
The pulse was irregular, 106. The arteries were somewhat stiff.

Neurologically, there was a marked dermatographia of comparatively
long duration. The periosteal reflexes were increased; the deep
reflexes could not be properly examined. The whole leg trembled
and heaved unsuccessfully on attempts to raise it voluntarily. After
even a slight stroke on the patellar tendon, the trembling became
excessive and irregular, and the leg passed into a heaving spasm
which would outlast the percussion for some time. The patellar
clonus could be obtained with the knee extended. The shaking
movements were somewhat more marked on the right than on the
left side. Similar phenomena occurred when the Achilles reflexes
were being examined. The triceps reflexes on both sides were
increased but there was no tremor or spasm of the arms. The
plantar reflexes were very lively, and following these reflexes
appeared tremors of the legs. When the spinous processes of the
vertebral column were percussed, a general shaking spasm
appeared. Tactile sense was everywhere normal, but the pain sense
was increased. Upon slight pin-pricks in the skin of the legs, there
would occur a marked shaking spasm of the leg, passing directly to
the other leg. These phenomena were more marked on the right
side than on the left. When sitting upon a chair with back supported,
a slight tremor would appear when the hands were raised and
stretched out, more markedly on the right side than on the left.
Movements of the arms were normal. However, the hand-grasps
were: right, 105; left, 80. In dorsal decubitus the movements of the
leg were performed comparatively well at first, but after a few
repetitions, the shaking spasm would occur on both sides, and the
movements would become very awkward. The heel-to-knee test
would then fail. If the patient were put on his feet, he would
immediately fall into spasms, first in the right leg, then in the left.
The trunk would now be involved, and soon the arms, whereupon
the whole body, with the exception of the head, would be seen
trembling and shaking, and the patient would fall forward, trying to
get support by leaning against a wall, seizing a chair, or sinking
down slowly. The spasms disappeared at once in dorsal decubitus
and in sitting with supported back. Outward irritation by the
acoustic, optic or tactile avenues would bring out spasms in the legs,

always more markedly on the right side than on the left. Psychic
irritations would cause spasms. The muscles of the limbs were held
in great tension, the flexors and extensors being alternately affected.
When the patient was moving along a wall with a difficult, swaying
gait, his efforts reminded the examiner of the attempts of a heavily
intoxicated man to walk. Upon attempts to create passive
movements of the lower limbs, severe shaking and trembling
movements set in, followed by a general spastic tension of the leg
musculature such that it could not be further flexed or extended.
The patient was put in the psychiatric section, as too seriously ill
for the nerve hospital. He improved after a few days, being then
able to walk without much support although still with some shaking
and tremor. If his attention was diverted, passive movement of the
leg could be carried out without developing spasm. He was treated
in a room by himself with removal of all outward irritation. His legs
were treated for an hour, three times daily, by means of moist packs.
On account of complaints of insomnia he was given small doses of
hypnotics.
The main thing here, according to Binswanger, is the
psychotherapy. The patient was told almost daily in the course of
conversation, first, that the illness was being cured; secondly, that
upon recovery he would be employed in the future only on the
postal service. He was told that he would have to avoid marked
physical exertion, of course, but that he still would be fit for office
work and could serve the fatherland in this way. Still he could not be
transferred back to the hospital, he was told, unless he became
entirely well, so that he could move with perfect freedom.
February 23 the patient was performing daily exercises in walking
and standing; the spasm became very slight on standing, and often
would entirely cease, but it remained still plainly present in the legs;
the trunk and arms were free. External irritations were now less
prone to excite spasm. Sleep became quiet and dreamless. He was
transferred to the nerve hospital, able to move about freely in house
and garden and only tremulous after long walks and considerable

bodily and mental fatigue. He was given a week’s furlough home. He
wished very much to get into the postal service; at the time of the
report he had not attained this goal. He had renewed attacks of
trembling upon exertion, and was transferred at the end of June to a
convalescent home.

Shell-shock; emotion: Hyperkinesis, fear, dreams.
Case 328. (Mott, January, 1916.)
A private, 21, was with 30 men carrying sandbags in the daylight,
under shell fire. He was thrown into a deep hole by an explosion,
climbed out, and saw all his mates dead.
He was admitted to the Fourth London General Hospital, June 20,
1915, having been at Boulogne for a fortnight. He was lying in bed
on his back, making continuous jerky lateral movements of head,
and movements of arms, especially of the left arm. He was groaning
slightly, now and then raising his eyelids with a staring expression of
bewilderment and terror. He was able to mutter answers to
questions. He would occasionally raise his right hand to his forehead.
If he was observed, these movements became exaggerated. They
ceased in sleep. He muttered even when unobserved. He continually
said, “You won’t let me back.” Asked as to dreams, he replied,
“Guns.” Voluntary movements were made, which prevented
obtaining reflexes. When his pupils were to be examined by a man in
uniform, he showed a marked facies of terror; his pupils were
dilated; the eyes opened wide, the brows were furrowed, and there
was an anxious scowl. The flash of an electric light produced the
same effect.
June 24 the patient was much better. He said the explosion which
had killed his friends after he had been only a few weeks at the
front, was the first serious event in his service. He kept seeing it
again, with bright lights and bursting shells. Sometimes he would
hear the men shouting. In dreams he both saw and heard shells and
men. There was pain in the back and right side of the head.

June 26 he was improved but still had pain in the back of the
head, especially when trying to remember, and a slight tremor of the
hands. He had been given hot baths at Boulogne on account of
being very cold and shivering. He had always felt sick at the sight of
blood. He was boarded for Home Service six months after admission.

Shell fire and barbed-wire work: Tremors, anesthesias,
temperature and pain hallucinations.
Case 329. (Myers, March, 1916.)
A corporal, 39, had been working under shell fire at barbed-wire
entanglements. The man was big and robust, but much depressed,
complaining of noises in the head, pricking pains, unsteady legs,
fatigue, irritability, loss of confidence. He showed tremors of arms
and legs on movement, and stood unsteadily with eyes closed. He
said: “My legs have been very unsteady, especially when some one
is looking at me. They must have thought me drunk at times.”
The head and tongue were tremulous, the knee-jerks
exaggerated, the soles insensitive to touch and pain; but sensibility
to deep pressure was retained. There was a gradual return of right
answers on further trials, aided by comparison with effects of stimuli
applied to the dorsum of the foot. Though he gave correct replies on
heat and cold tests over the arms, he gave wrong answers over the
dorsum of the feet, less often over legs, sometimes over thighs.
Later during examination, the feet became tremulous. He felt a
“silly childish fear,” and his hands began to feel cold and clammy;
whereupon he began to reply hot or cold when the tubes were not
applied at all (temperature hallucinations). There were apparently
pain hallucinations in the soles and errors in response to the
compasses.
Re the temperature hallucinations noted by Myers, these are to be
distinguished from true vasomotor disorders. Babinski believes that
he has definitely established that, though hysteria may cause a

slight thermo-asymmetry, yet never a definite vasomotor or thermic
disorder.
Re hysterical pains, the most frequent are probably those of
hysterical pseudo sciatica, in which true signs of sciatica are absent,
namely, (1) loss of Achilles jerk, (2) scoliosis, (3) Lasègue’s sign
(pain on thigh flexion with leg extension), (4) Neri’s sign (with trunk
bent forward, affected knee flexed), and (5) Bonnet’s sign (pain on
thigh adduction).

Shell-shock: Emotional crises; twice recurrent mutism;
amnesia. A comrade in the same explosion gets off with
transient phenomena.
Case 330. (Mairet, Piéron and Bouzansky, June, 1915.)
December 15, sitting back of a wall were three minor officers and
an homme de liaison, when a 105 shell punctured the wall and
burst, killing one and wounding another severely. One of these, a
sous-lieutenant, lost consciousness for a quarter of an hour and had
some severe headaches for a few days, but nothing more. The other,
the homme de liaison, was found standing, bewildered, looking at
the dead. When his name was called, he jumped and started off,
weeping and crying out.
When caught, he was still somewhat clear, recognized his superior
officer, answered yes and no, but kept asking, “Where is the other?”
Next day he kept weeping and said not a word.
He was evacuated through a series of hospitals and was sent to
convalesce with his sister at Montpellier, having now got back his
speech. He had a seizure of fear in the street and was picked up by
the police and was carried to a general hospital January 21. Here he
could not speak, could hardly write, being unable to find his words.
He walked slowly, bent over, eyes abnormally wide open, with a look
of terror. The lighting of a match made him start off weeping. The
symptom picture included tinnitus, vertigo, deafness, some reduction
of the visual field (especially on the left side), hypesthesia and
hypalgesia on the left side, hyperalgesia on the right, painful points
(epigastric, inguinal, supra and infra mammary left), reflex, muscular
and tendon, hyperexcitability on right side, jactitation, impairment of
recollective memory, complete memory gap for the accident and

everything thereafter, retentive memory reduced, imagination
impaired, nightmares (awaking with a start).
A few days later he was able to pronounce his name with difficulty
and to say yes and no. February 4 there was an appendicular crisis,
whereupon mutism became absolute again and lasted into May,
despite suggestive therapy.
May 10, improvement in memory for things before the accident
grew better, nightmares had become less frequent, the jactitation
had continued.
There was no neuropathic predisposition in this case except
infantile convulsions in two sisters, followed by nervous crises in
one.
Re appendicular crisis, which was the occasion of a relapse in
mutism, see remarks under relapses under Case 292.
Re mutism, Babinski counts mutism, hysteria major, and rhythmic
chorea as so characteristically hysterical that no nervous disturbance
of an organic nature can resemble them. The description of
hysterical mutism is due to Charcot. According to Babinski, mutism is
just as curable as hysterical deafness, and perhaps more curable. Yet
mutism persists unchanged for many months unless it is treated
properly by some form of suggestion. “It may be almost said that a
subject suffering from speech defect, who nevertheless succeeds in
making other people understand by all sorts of varied and expressive
gestures the circumstances of his condition, is a hysterical mute and
not an aphasic.” According to Babinski, no true case of hysterical
aphasia has been published since the beginning of the war; all the
cases have been cases of mutism.

Shell explosion; fainting: Hysterical crises of emotion; fright
at a frog in the garden. Hereditary and acquired neuropathic
taint.
Case 331. (Claude, Dide and Lejonne, April, 1916.)
A lieutenant, 28 (mother nervous; father had nervous spells at
fifteen; patient himself nervous as a child), was under a great moral
strain at the outbreak of war, and was utterly exhausted in a hard
battle that lasted more than twenty-four hours.
A shell burst near him September 25 at the Somme, whereupon
he fainted. He was evacuated to Amiens for three weeks; kept his
bed; somnambulistic; subject to nervous crises.
He passed to the hospital of Ferté-Bernard for a month, the crises
becoming more frequent. He was sent to a convalescent dépôt for
three days, thence for three months to La Plisse; got better; lived at
home, but went to a show where they played the Marseillaise, was
profoundly moved thereby, and had more crises; accordingly went
back under medical care and finally to his dépôt, where, upon seeing
his old comrades, he had more crises, and was finally evacuated to
the neurological center of the Eighth Region.
He there seemed mistrustful when asked to tell his story. There
was a noise of cannon, whereupon he got up, ran in all directions in
the garden, bumping into trees in the greatest terror, yelling, “There
they are!”; gesticulating, soliloquizing: “Bomb! Shell! Bayonet!” His
pulse was rapid. After he was calmed down, he began to talk again
in a very clear, distinct, somewhat tremulous voice. A metallic sound
made him shudder and cry out, “The drums!” and another scene of
rushing about followed.

In the consulting office he wept. Battle dreams and nightmares,
soliloquies and terror, seminal losses, occurred during the next few
days.
August 4, while alone in the garden, he heard a noise, went
toward it and spied a frog, whereupon he had another crisis of fear
and emotion. He got another lieutenant, and both returned, sticks in
hand. Pointing to a hole in the earth, Lieutenant A. said, “Trenches!
There they are!” “What? Who?” said Lieutenant B. “The Boches!”
said Lieutenant A. Whereupon Lieutenant B also saw them and cried
out bravely, “Go away!” However, the second lieutenant immediately
saw that he had been the subject of suggestive hallucination.
Fifteen days of calm followed, during which the lieutenant became
more sociable and grew better having no more crises.
Four other cases of “hysteroemotive nature” are reported by
Claude, all of them showing a special constitutional basis before the
war. In the differential diagnosis, alcoholism, cyclothymia, obsessive
psychosis and occasionally systematized delusional psychosis may be
considered. There were occasional stereotypical features in the
cases, but of a very fugitive nature. Dementia praecox is hardly to
be considered.
Re “hysteroemotive” cases, Babinski holds that the claim of
emotion as a single factor capable of causing hysteria by itself, is a
false claim. To be sure, the patients themselves may give accounts
which lead to the idea of an emotional hysteria. Dide, one of the
authors of the above case, states that functional disorders occur only
in subjects whose emotional tone has been relaxed. The heaviest
bombardments are not in line to produce these disorders when the
morale of the troops is good. The bloodiest affairs may leave no
single case of nervous disorder when the morale is good. Dide found
in a whole year’s work but a single functional case,—an oniric
delirium, following a trench mortar explosion. Roselle and Oberthür
also state on the basis of intensive experience, that large projectiles
do not cause any intensive emotional reactions. Clunet’s
observations upon the shipwrecked La Provence II, quoted by

Babinski, run in the same direction. It will be noted that the five
cases called “hysteroemotive” showed a special constitutional basis
antebellum.

War strain; slight wound; burials; shell-shock: Neurosis with
anxiety; war dreams; apparent recovery. Relapse with
depression.
Case 332. (MacCurdy, July, 1917.)
A man, 27 (normal mischievous boy, successful in work,
unmarried, shy with women), enlisted October, 1914; adapted
himself well to training; at first enjoyed his work, though later bored
with routine; and in February, 1915, went to the firing line in France.
The first shell-fire experience made him break into a cold sweat with
fear and slowed him down for a time. However, he enjoyed the
active operations until, after eight months in the trenches, he was
invalided home with nephritis. After four months’ convalescence he
was recommended for a commission, obtained after two months’
training. After two further months in the regimental dépôt, he went
back to France as lieutenant in June, 1916, plunging into four
months of heavy fighting on the Somme, in which he was wounded
slightly once and was one day buried three times by earth from shell
explosion. The last time he was buried he was unconscious for ten
minutes and was relieved for three days. He got frequently knocked
out for short periods by shell concussion.
At the end of October, 1916, he was sent to the Ypres section,
where he worked with a pioneer battalion that buried many dead.
After a month of this pioneer work he became mildly depressed;
fatigue set in, and now for the first time he began to jump nervously
when the shells came over. To counteract this nervousness he began
to drink and in a fortnight developed insomnia. The Somme front
scenes kept constantly in mind as he tried to sleep. He felt as if he
had to go up to the trenches next day and that he did not want to

go. There were hypnagogic hallucinations of trenches and shells,
recognized as imaginary and productive of no fear. Week by week he
became more nervous, became unable to locate shell falls, and felt
as if they were all coming at him. Early in 1917 he had taken heavily
to drink and grew greatly fatigued in the struggle to prevent
betraying his fear to his men. The horror at bloodshed, to which he
had long since become accustomed, reappeared. He actually wished
that he might be killed.
He carried on until March, when one day on a raid seven men
were killed around him and he was immediately thereafter buried.
He reported sick and was found to be somewhat febrile. He carried
on for two more days; had to report sick again; was sent to hospital
and for two or three weeks had bad headaches back of the eyes and
a sleep interrupted by sudden wakings with a start. Nightmares now
began for the first time. They dealt with the Somme front, merciless
shelling coming nearer and nearer. Finally, he would wake with a
shriek when a shell landed on top of him. In the day time any noise
would be interpreted as a shell. Hypnagogic hallucinations of
Germans entering the room appeared. After a little over a week in
French hospitals he was transferred to London; grew better; was
sent to a hospital in the country where outdoor exercise and
recreation helped him.
Two weeks later the death of one of his best friends depressed
him a good deal. He failed in an attempt to sing at a concert, and
then grew much worse, with the old dreams every night and
hypochondriacal complaints of sweats and loss of weight. He was
convinced that he was physically and nervously a permanent wreck.
According to MacCurdy, this case is a typical case of war neurosis
of the anxiety type, except that a relapse with depression is
somewhat atypical.
Re anxiety, Lépine counts trauma as one of the most important
factors. The reduction of morale in physically injured cases may at
times require their rapid withdrawal to a safety zone. The delirium of
the physically injured sometimes takes on a melancholic tinge.

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