when the individual knows that the fire,
which is reanimated in him, is not less lively in the breasts of his
associates; and sees the signs and testimonies of his own power,
incorporated with those of a growing multitude and not to be
distinguished from them, accompany him wherever he moves.--Hence those
marvellous achievements which were performed by the first enthusiastic
followers of Mohammed; and by other conquerors, who with their armies
have swept large portions of the earth like a transitory wind, or have
founded new religions or empires.--But, if the object contended for be
worthy and truly great (as, in the instance of the Spaniards, we have
seen that it is); if cruelties have been committed upon an ancient and
venerable people, which 'shake the human frame with horror;' if not
alone the life which is sustained by the bread of the mouth, but
that--without which there is no life--the life in the soul, has been
directly and mortally warred against; if reason has had abominations to
endure in her inmost sanctuary;--then does intense passion, consecrated
by a sudden revelation of justice, give birth to those higher and better
wonders which I have described; and exhibit true miracles to the eyes of
men, and the noblest which can be seen. It may be added that,--as this
union brings back to the right road the faculty of imagination, where it
is prone to err, and has gone farthest astray; as it corrects those
qualities which (being in their essence indifferent), and cleanses those
affections which (not being inherent in the constitution of man, nor
necessarily determined to their object) are more immediately dependent
upon the imagination, and which may have received from it a thorough
taint of dishonour;--so the domestic loves and sanctities which are in
their nature less liable to be stained,--so these, wherever they have
flowed with a pure and placid stream, do instantly, under the same
influence, put forth their strength as in a flood; and, without being
sullied or polluted, pursue--exultingly and with song--a course which
leads the contemplative reason to the ocean of eternal love.

I feel that I have been speaking in a strain which it is difficult to
harmonize with the petty irritations, the doubts and fears, and the
familiar (and therefore frequently undignified) exterior of present and
passing events. But the theme is justice: and my voice is raised for
mankind; for us who are alive, and for all posterity:--ju