t," what are
they? Properly their one element of venerableness, of strength of
greatness, is, that they at all times correspond therewith as near as
by human possibility they can. They are cherishing destruction in
their bosom every hour that they continue otherwise....

Enforce it by never such statuting, three readings, royal assents;
blow it to the four winds with all manner of quilted trumpeters and
pursuivants, in the rear of them never so many gibbets and hangmen, it
will not stand, it cannot stand. From all souls of men, from all ends
of Nature, from the Throne of God above, there are no voices bidding
it: Away, away! Does it take warning; does it stand, strong in its
three readings, in its gibbets and artillery-parks? The more woe is to
it, the frightfuller woe. It will continue standing for its day, for
its year, for its century, doing evil all the while; but it has One
enemy who is Almighty; dissolution, explosion, and the everlasting
Laws of Nature incessantly advance towards it; and the deeper its
rooting, more obstinate its continuing, the deeper also and huger will
ruin and overturn be.

In this God's-world, with its wild-whirling eddies and mad
foam-oceans, where men and nations perish as if without law, and
judgment for an unjust thing is sternly delayed, dost thou think that
there is therefore no justice? It is what the fool hath said in his
heart. It is what the wise, in all times, were wise because they
denied, and knew forever not to be. I tell thee again, there is
nothing else but justice. One strong thing I find here below; the just
thing, the true thing. My friend, if thou hadst all the artillery of
Woolwich trundling at thy back in support of an unjust thing; and
infinite bonfires visibly waiting ahead of thee, to blaze centuries
long for thy victory on behalf of it,--I would advise thee to call
halt, to fling down thy baton, and say, "In God's name, No!" Thy
"success?" Poor devil, what will thy success amount to? If the thing
is unjust, thou hast not succeeded; no, not tho bonfires blazed from
North to South, and bells rang, and editors wrote leading-articles,
and the just thing lay trampled out of sight, to all mortal eyes an
abolished and annihilated thing. Success? In a few years thou wilt be
dead and dark,--all cold, eyeless, deaf; no blaze of bonfires,
ding-dong of bells or leading-articles visible or audible to thee
again at all forever: What kind of success is that!

VI

THE G