The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts.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The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts.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
Yet further: contrasting the present condition of Spain with that of
France at the commencement of her revolution, we must not overlook one
characteristic; the Spaniards have no division among themselves by and
through themselves; no numerous Priesthood--no Nobility--no large body
of powerful Burghers--from passion, interest, and conscience--opposing
the end which is known and felt to be the duty and only honest and true
interest of all. Hostility, wherever it is found, must proceed from the
seductions of the Invader: and these depend solely upon his power: let
that be shattered; and they vanish.
And this once again leads us directly to that immense military force
which the Spaniards have to combat; and which, many think, more than
counterbalances every internal advantage. It is indeed formidable: as
revolutionary appetites and energies must needs be; when, among a people
numerous as the people of France, they have ceased to spend themselves
in conflicting factions within the country for objects perpetually
changing shape; and are carried out of it under the strong controul of
an absolute despotism, as opportunity invites, for a definite
object--plunder and conquest. It is, I allow, a frightful spectacle--to
see the prime of a vast nation propelled out of their territory with the
rapid sweep of a horde of Tartars; moving from the impulse of like
savage instincts; and furnished, at the same time, with those implements
of physical destruction which have been produced by science and
civilization. Such are the motions of the French armies; unchecked by
any thought which philosophy and the spirit of society, progressively
humanizing, have called forth--to determine or regulate the application
of the murderous and desolating apparatus with which by philosophy and
science they have been provided. With a like perversion of things, and
the same mischievous reconcilement of forces in their nature adverse,
these revolutionary impulses and these appetites of barbarous (nay,
what is far worse, of barbarized) men are embodied in a new frame of
polity; which possesses the consistency of an ancient Government,
without its embarrassments and weaknesses. And at the head of all is the
mind of one man who acts avowedly upon the principle that everything,
which can be done safely by the supreme power of a State, may be done
(_See Appendix F_.); and who has, at his command, the greatest part of
the continent of Europe--to fulfil what yet remains unaccomplished of
his nefarious purposes.
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