imself; nevertheless, has he done a still more
imperial thing:--gone to war without declaring intentions. You
yourselves were precipitated upon a neighboring nation, ere you knew
your spears were in your hands.

"But, as in stars you have written it on the welkin, sovereign-kings!
you are a great and glorious people. And verily, yours is the best and
happiest land under the sun. But not wholly, because you, in your
wisdom, decreed it: your origin and geography necessitated it.
Nor, in their germ, are all your blessings to be ascribed to the noble
sires, who of yore fought in your behalf, sovereign-kings! Your nation
enjoyed no little independence before your Declaration declared it.
Your ancient pilgrims fathered your liberty; and your wild woods
harbored the nursling. For the state that to-day is made up of slaves,
can not to-morrow transmute her bond into free; though lawlessness may
transform them into brutes. Freedom is the name for a thing that is
_not_ freedom; this, a lesson never learned in an hour or an age. By
some tribes it will never be learned.

"Yet, if it please you, there may be such a thing as being free under
Caesar. Ages ago, there were as many vital freemen, as breathe vital
air to-day.

"Names make not distinctions; some despots rule without swaying
scepters. Though King Bello's palace was not put together by yoked
men; your federal temple of freedom, sovereign-kings! was the
handiwork of slaves.

"It is not gildings, and gold maces, and crown jewels alone, that make
a people servile. There is much bowing and cringing among you
yourselves, sovereign-kings! Poverty is abased before riches, all
Mardi over; any where, it is hard to be a debtor; any where, the wise
will lord it over fools; every where, suffering is found.

"Thus, freedom is more social than political. And its real felicity is
not to be shared. _That_ is of a man's own individual getting and
holding. It is not, who rules the state, but who rules me. Better be
secure under one king, than exposed to violence from twenty millions
of monarchs, though oneself be of the number.

"But superstitious notions you harbor, sovereign kings! Did you visit
Dominora, you would not be marched straight into a dungeon. And though
you would behold sundry sights displeasing, you would start to inhale
such liberal breezes; and hear crowds boasting of their privileges; as
you, of yours. Nor has the wine of Dominora, a monarchical flavor.

"Now, though