The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.Wordsworth, William
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The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.
Wordsworth, William
English literature -- 19th century
For, when the people speaks loudly, it is from being strongly possessed
either by the Godhead or the Demon; and he, who cannot discover the true
spirit from the false, hath no ear for profitable communion. But in all
that regarded the destinies of Spain, and her own as connected with
them, the voice of Britain had the unquestionable sound of inspiration.
If the gentle passions of pity, love, and gratitude, be porches of the
temple; if the sentiments of admiration and rivalry be pillars upon
which the structure is sustained; if, lastly, hatred, and anger, and
vengeance, be steps which, by a mystery of nature, lead to the House of
Sanctity;--then was it manifest to what power the edifice was
consecrated; and that the voice within was of Holiness and Truth.
Spain had risen not merely to be delivered and saved;--deliverance and
safety were but intermediate objects;--regeneration and liberty were the
end, and the means by which this end was to be attained; had their own
high value; were determined and precious; and could no more admit of
being departed from, than the end of being forgotten.--She had
risen--not merely to be free; but, in the act and process of acquiring
that freedom, to recompense herself, as it were in a moment, for all
which she had suffered through ages; to levy, upon the false fame of a
cruel Tyrant, large contributions of true glory; to lift herself, by the
conflict, as high in honour--as the disgrace was deep to which her own
weakness and vices, and the violence and perfidy of her enemies, had
subjected her.
Let us suppose that our own Land had been so outraged; could we have
been content that the enemy should be wafted from our shores as lightly
as he came,--much less that he should depart illustrated in his own eyes
and glorified, singing songs of savage triumph and wicked
gaiety?--No.--Should we not have felt that a high trespass--a grievous
offence had been committed; and that to demand satisfaction was our
first and indispensable duty? Would we not have rendered their bodies
back upon our guardian ocean which had borne them hither; or have
insisted that their haughty weapons should submissively kiss the soil
which they had polluted? We should have been resolute in a defence that
would strike awe and terror: this for our dignity:--moreover, if safety
and deliverance are to be so fondly prized for their own sakes, what
security otherwise could they have? Would it not be certain that the
work, which had been so ill done to-day, we should be called upon to
execute still more imperfectly and ingloriously to-morrow; that we
should be summoned to an attempt that would be vain?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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