The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts. In Three Volumes.Wordsworth, William
General
The Prose Works of William Wordsworth: For the First Time Collected, With Additions from Unpublished Manuscripts.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
human nature. A military spirit should be there, and a military action,
not confined like an ordinary river in one channel, but spreading like
the Nile over the whole face of the land. Is this possible? I believe it
is: if there be minds among them worthy to lead, and if those leading
minds cherish a _civic_ spirit by all warrantable aids and appliances,
and, above all other means, by combining a reverential memory of their
elder ancestors with distinct hopes of solid advantage, from the
privileges of freedom, for themselves and their posterity--to which the
history and the past state of Spain furnish such enviable facilities;
and if they provide for the sustenance of this spirit, by organizing it
in its primary sources, not timidly jealous of a people, whose toils and
sacrifices have approved them worthy of all love and confidence, and
whose failing of excess, if such there exist, is assuredly on the side
of loyalty to their Sovereign, and predilection for all established
institutions. We affirm, then, that a universal military spirit may be
produced; and not only this, but that a much more rare and more
admirable phenomenon may be realized--the civic and military spirit
united in one people, and in enduring harmony with each other. The
people of Spain, with arms in their hands, are already in an elevated
mood, to which they have been raised by the indignant passions, and the
keen sense of insupportable wrong and insult from the enemy, and its
infamous instruments. But they must be taught, not to trust too
exclusively to the violent passions, which have already done much of
their peculiar task and service. They must seek additional aid from
affections, which less imperiously exclude all individual interests,
while at the same time they consecrate them to the public good.--But the
enemy is in the heart of their Land! We have not forgotten this. We
would encourage their military zeal, and all qualities especially
military, by all rewards of honourable ambition, and by rank and dignity
conferred on the truly worthy, whatever may be their birth or condition,
the elevating influence of which would extend from the individual
possessor to the class from which he may have sprung. For the necessity
of thus raising and upholding the military spirit, we plead: but yet the
_professional_ excellencies of the soldier must be contemplated
according to their due place and relation. Nothing is done, or worse
than nothing, unless something higher be taught, _as_ higher, something
more fundamental, _as_ more fundamental. In the moral virtues and
qualities of passion which belong to a people, must the ultimate
salvation of a people be sought for. Moral qualities of a high order,
and vehement passions, and virtuous as vehement, the Spaniards have
already displayed; nor is it to be anticipated, that the conduct of
their enemies will suffer the heat and glow to remit and languish. These
may be trusted to themselves, and to the provocations of the merciless
Invader.
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