, that there is not a man
in these islands whose heart would not, at such a spectacle, have beat
in sympathy with that of this fervent Patriot--whose voice would not be
in true accord with his in the prayer (which, if he has not already
perished for the service of his dear country, he is perhaps uttering at
this moment) that Andalusia and the city of Seville may preserve the
noble attitude in which they then stood, and are yet standing; or, if
they be doomed to fall, that their dying efforts may not be unworthy of
their first promises; that the evening--the closing hour of their
freedom may display a brightness not less splendid, though more aweful,
than the dawn; so that the names of Seville and Andalusia may be
consecrated among men, and be words of life to endless generations.

Saragossa!--She also has given bond, by her past actions, that she
cannot forget her duty and will not shrink from it.[20]

[20] Written in February.

Valencia is under the seal of the same obligation. The multitudes of men
who were arrayed in the fields of Baylen, and upon the mountains of the
North; the peasants of Asturias, and the students of Salamanca; and many
a solitary and untold-of hand, which, quitting for a moment the plough
or the spade, has discharged a more pressing debt to the country by
levelling with the dust at least one insolent and murderous
Invader;--these have attested the efficacy of the passions which we have
been contemplating--that the will of good men is not a vain impulse,
heroic desires a delusive prop;--have proved that the condition of human
affairs is not so forlorn and desperate, but that there are golden
opportunities when the dictates of justice may be unrelentingly
enforced, and the beauty of the inner mind substantiated in the outward
act;--for a visible standard to look back upon; for a point of realized
excellence at which to aspire; a monument to record;--for a charter to
fasten down; and, as far as it is possible, to preserve.

Yes! there was an annunciation which the good received with gladness; a
bright appearance which emboldened the wise to say--We trust that
Regeneration is at hand; these are works of recovered innocence and
wisdom:

Magnus ab integro seclorum nascitur ordo;
_Jam_ redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna;
_Jam_ nova progenies coelo demittitur alto.

The spirits of the generous, of the brave, of the meditative, of the
youthful and undefiled--who, upon the strongest