No room had given him this sense of companionship since
he had spent his boyish holidays in the old Count Benedetto's
apartments; but it was of another, intangible world that his present
surroundings spoke. Vivaldi received him kindly and asked him to repeat
his visit; and Odo returned as often as he thought prudent.
The Professor's conversation engaged him deeply. Vivaldi's familiarity
with French speculative literature, and with its sources in the
experiential philosophy of the English school, gave Odo his first clear
conception of the origin and tendency of the new movement. This
coordination of scattered ideas was aided by his readings in the
Encyclopaedia, which, though placed on the Index in Piedmont, was to be
found behind the concealed panels of more than one private library. From
his talks with Alfieri, and from the pages of Plutarch, he had gained a
certain insight into the Stoical view of reason as the measure of
conduct, and of the inherent sufficiency of virtue as its own end. He
now learned that all about him men were endeavouring to restore the
human spirit to that lost conception of its dignity; and he longed to
join the band of new crusaders who had set out to recover the tomb of
truth from the forces of superstition. The distinguishing mark of
eighteenth-century philosophy was its eagerness to convert its
acquisitions in every branch of knowledge into instruments of practical
beneficence; and this quality appealed peculiarly to Odo, who had ever
been moved by abstract theories only as they explained or modified the
destiny of man.
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