Rassegna storica del Risorgimento

IN MARGINE AL XLV1 CONGRESSO DELL'ISTITUTO (Genova. 24-28 settembre 1972)
Nel discorso inaugurale del XLVI Congresso il presidente dell'Istituto ha ricordato, con commosse parole, tra gli altri, anche il compianto scrittore Gwilym Oswald Griffith, deceduto il 1 gennaio, del quale abbiamo pubblicato un necrologio nel II fascicolo di quest'anno.
H doti, Silvio Pozzi, consigliere del nostro Comitato di Napoli e consi­gliere segretario del Centro napoletano di srudi mazziniani, il quale era in rap­porto epistolare con lo scomparso, ha inviato alla nostra Rassegna le copie foto­statiche delle due lettere che, a sua richiesta, ben volentieri, qui di seguito pub­blichiamo.
June 9-1967 Dear Dr Silvio Pozzi,
I am deeply and hopelessly in your debt. Certainly I have done nothing to merit your inost generous gift of the Mazzinian monographs and the precious photo-prints of the Maestro himself. They will be a treasured addition to my private co-Hection of Mazzinian literature. and they shall be bequeathed, in due lime, to one of our Universities. I say in due lime , for I am now a very old man and hope to be permitted, before long, to do my obeisance to the Maestro himself.
Like you, I first encountered him when, as a callow youth, I read an English version of bis Doveri dell'Uomo. It was a real encounter . and as with you it had the force of a revelation. As you may know, I wrote some 30 years later a biographical study of the Maestro as Prophet of the New Europe: bnt I see only too plainly in my old age that I had noi sufficiently purged my soul of egolism to write a really worthy tribute. My ambition as an author marred my devotion to the Prophet. Nevertheless, he remains a spiritual presence in my life.
My good friend, Sig. Tullio Marciali told me, in a recent lettor, that 1 might expeci to hear from you, and I am sure I owe my thanks to him as well as to you ! My life has been enriched by the generous friendabip of so many good Mazziniana among them Terenzio Grandi, Vittorio Parmentola, Ernesto Ma-gitano and the dear Magliano Famiglia.
Ora e sempre,
Gratcfully yours Gwilym Oswald GrMììth
July 20 1967
My dear friend Dr Pozzi
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Your generous kindness to me might well leave me speechless, for I certainly do not merit it. And ibis emotional mutezza might perhaps explain my otherwise inexplicable and inexcusable tardiness in replying to your lettor. But tbere is another explnnatinn. The infirmi! ics of old age (I am now 85) have