The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts.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The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts.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
Now it must be obvious to a reflecting mind that every thing which is
desperately immoral, being in its constitution monstrous, is of itself
perishable: decay it cannot escape; and, further, it is liable to sudden
dissolution: time would evince this in the instance before us; though
not, perhaps, until infinite and irreparable harm had been done. But,
even at present, each of the sources of this preternatural strength (as
far as it is formidable to Europe) has its corresponding seat of
weakness; which, were it fairly touched, would manifest itself
immediately.--The power is indeed a Colossus: but, if the trunk be of
molten-brass, the members are of clay; and would fall to pieces upon a
shock which need not be violent. Great Britain, if her energies were
properly called forth and directed, might (as we have already
maintained) give this shock. 'Magna parvis obscurantur' was the
appropriate motto (the device a Sun Eclipsed) when Lord Peterborough,
with a handful of men opposed to fortified cities and large armies,
brought a great part of Spain to acknowledge a sovereign of the House of
Austria. We have _now_ a vast military force; and,--even without a
Peterborough or a Marlborough,--at this precious opportunity (when, as
is daily more probable, a large portion of the French force must march
northwards to combat Austria) we might easily, by expelling the French
from the Peninsula, secure an immediate footing there for liberty; and
the Pyrenees would then be shut against them for ever. The disciplined
troops of Great Britain might overthrow the enemy in the field; while
the Patriots of Spain, under wise management, would be able to consume
him slowly but surely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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