No man truly sees into his living neighbor's, brother's, wife's, nay even his own soul.

How futile, therefore, is the effort which we make to seize and sketch the vital lineaments of men long dead, divided from us not merely by the grave which has absorbed their fleshly form and deprived us of their tone of voice, but also by those differences in thought and feeling which separate the centuries of culture! Yet this impossible task lies ever before the historian.

Few characters are more patently difficult to comprehend than that of Sarpi.

Ultimately, so far as it is possible to formulate a view, I think he may be defined as a Christian Stoic, possessed with two main governing ideas, duty to God and duty to Venice.

His last words were for Venice; the penultimate consigned his soul to God.