THE VENERABLE DON BOSCO
and their talents developed. Music, the first, the most beloved, and the most universal of the arts, was one of the great factors of Don Bosco in the renewal and enlightenment of these young souls. Himself a musician with an insuperable devotion to the sacred harmonies of the Church, he made choral singing, from the first, a beautiful and attractive feature of the Oratory: all were able to sing, and some superb voices were found among these minstrels of the South, so that with training they became leaders in the liturgical functions. Talent for instrumental music, too, the natural heritage of the Italian, was fostered, and a band was a sine qua non of every Oratory.
The war of 1859 caused Don Bosco much trouble and anxiety. Known to be a correspondent of Pius IX—whose answer to his own letter of condolence he had printed—and of Cardinal Antonelli and Archbishop Franzoni, he was denounced as a conspirator, and his Institute condemned as a hotbed of reactionary politics. Subjected by the government to an insidious and insulting inspection of his schools, his dignity and firmness under the ordeal rose to admiration. And still more magnificent was his attitude when he appeared before Count de Cavour, president of the council, and Farini, minister of the interior, to repel the charges against him and to hand over to them the hundreds of poor boys of his Oratories to be a burden on the state. He openly censured the government agents, and his arguments in
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