--_Carlyle_.
20. When we see one word of a frail man on the throne of France tearing a
hundred thousand sons from their homes, breaking asunder the sacred
ties of domestic life, sentencing myriads of the young to make murder
their calling and rapacity their means of support, and extorting from
nations their treasures to extend this ruinous sway, we are ready to
ask ourselves, Is not this a dream? and, when the sad reality comes
home to us, we blush for a race which can stoop to such an abject lot.
At length, indeed, we see the tyrant humbled, stripped of power, but
stripped by those who, in the main, are not unwilling to play the
despot on a narrower scale, and to break down the spirit of nations
under the same iron sway.--_Channing_.
21. There are days which occur in this climate, at almost any season of the
year, wherein the world reaches its perfection; when the air, the
heavenly bodies, and the earth make a harmony, as if Nature would
indulge her offspring; when, in these bleak upper sides of the planet,
nothing is to desire that we have heard of the happiest latitudes, and
we bask in the shining hours of Florida and Cuba; when everything that
has life gives sign of satisfaction, and the cattle that lie on the
ground seem to have great and tranquil thoughts.
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