s all men are to their higher instincts; and fulfilled
it very imperfectly--as all men fulfil their duties. But it was there--
in their heart of hearts. It helped to make them; and, therefore, it
helped to make us. It ennobled them; it called out in them the sense of
unity, order, discipline, and a lofty and unselfish affection. And I
thank God, as an Englishman, for any event, however exquisitely painful,
which may call out those true graces in us, their descendants. And,
therefore, my good friends, if any cynic shall sneer, as he may, after
the present danger is past, at this sudden outburst of loyalty, and speak
of it as unreasoning and childish, answer not him. "Give not that which
is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest
they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." But
answer yourselves, and answer too your children, when they ask you what
has moved you thus--answer, I say, not childishly, but childlike: "We
have gone back, for a moment at least, to England's childhood--to the
mood of England when she was still young. And we are showing thereby
that we are not yet decayed into old age. That if we be men, and not
still children, yet the child is father to the man; and the child's heart
still beats underneath all the sins and all the cares and all the greeds
of our manhood."

More than one foreign nation is looking on in wonder and in envy at that
sight. God grant that they may understand all that it means. God grant
that they may understand of how wide and deep an application is the great
law, "Except ye be converted," changed, and turned round utterly, "and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven." God grant that they may recover the childlike heart, and
replace with it that childish heart which pulls to pieces at its own
irreverent fancy the most ancient and sacred institutions, to build up
ever fresh baby-houses out of the fragments, as a child does with its
broken toys.

Therefore, my friends, be not ashamed to have felt acutely. Be not
ashamed to feel acutely still, till all danger is past, or even long
after all danger is past; when you look back on what might have been, and
what it might have brought, ay, must have brought, if not to you, still
to your children after you. For so you will show yourselves worthy
descendants of your forefathers: so you will show yourselves worthy
c