by its brightness; and means of transit and
communication given to us, which have made but one kingdom of the
habitable globe. One kingdom;--but who is to be its king? Is there to be
no king in it, think you, and every man to do that which is right in his
own eyes? Or only kings of terror, and the obscene empires of Mammon
and Belial? Or will you, youths of England, make your country again a
royal throne of kings; a sceptred isle, for all the world a source of
light, a centre of peace; mistress of Learning and of the
Arts;--faithful guardian of great memories in the midst of irreverent
and ephemeral visions;--faithful servant of time-tried principles, under
temptation from fond experiments and licentious desires; and amidst the
cruel and clamorous jealousies of the nations, worshipped in her strange
valour of goodwill towards men?

29. "Vexilla regis prodeunt." Yes, but of which king? There are the two
oriflammes; which shall we plant on the farthest islands,--the one that
floats in heavenly fire, or that hangs heavy with foul tissue of
terrestrial gold? There is indeed a course of beneficent glory open to
us, such as never was yet offered to any poor group of mortal souls. But
it must be--it _is_ with us, now, "Reign or Die." And if it shall be
said of this country, "Fece per viltate, il gran rifiuto;" that refusal
of the crown will be, of all yet recorded in history, the shamefullest
and most untimely.

And this is what she must either do, or perish: she must found colonies
as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most energetic and
worthiest men;--seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set
her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists that their chief
virtue is to be fidelity to their country, and that their first aim is
to be to advance the power of England by land and sea: and that, though
they live on a distant plot of ground, they are no more to consider
themselves therefore disfranchised from their native land, than the
sailors of her fleets do, because they float on distant waves. So that
literally, these colonies must be fastened fleets; and every man of them
must be under authority of captains and officers, whose better command
is to be over fields and streets instead of ships of the line; and
England, in these her motionless navies (or, in the true and mightiest
sense, motionless _churches_, ruled by pilots on the Galilean lake of
all the world), is to "expect every man to do