Freedom in Athens their discipline hunt after valour presently from their youth with laborious exercise, and yet we that live remissly undertake as great dangers as they. . . : ... Such is the city for which these men, since they disdained to be robbed of it, valiantly fighting have died. And it is fit that every man of you that is left, should be like-minded, to undergo any travail for the same. I have therefore spoken so much concerning the city in general, as well to show you that the stakes between us and our enemies, who have nothing comparable to it, are not equal as also to establish on a firm foundation the eulogy of those of whom I will now speak,—the greater part of their praises being hereby delivered... There was none of these who preferring the further enjoyment of his wealth was thereby grown cowardly They fled from shame, but with their bodies they stood out the battle; and so, in a moment big with fate it was from their glory, rather than from their fear that they passed away. Such were these men, worthy of their country and for you that remain, you may pray for a safer fortune; but you ought to be no less venturously minded against the foe: not weighing the profit ... but contemplating the power of Athens, in her constant activity; and thereby becoming enamoured of her. And when she shall appear great to you, consider then that her glories were purchased by valiant men, and by men that learned their duty; by men that were sensible of dishonour when they came to act; by such men as, tho' they failed in their attempt, yet would not be wanting to the city with their virtue, but made unto it a most honourable contribution. And having each one given his body to the commonwealth they receive in stead thereof : 406 407 408 England & America a most remarkable sepulchre, not that wherein they are L'Angleterre est à présent le pays le plus libre qui soit au monde, je n'en excepte aucune république ... It has long been a grave question whether any government not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its existence in great emergencies. . . .. Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in LIBERTY, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a 409 Burke is speaking 1775 America portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from these honoured dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new-birth of Freedom; and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. My hold of the Colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the Colonists always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your Government;—they will cling and grapple to you; and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance... As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority British Colonies of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces towards you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia. But until you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity of price of which you have the monopoly. .. It is the spirit of the English Constitution, which, infused through the mighty mass, pervades, feeds, unites, invigorates, vivifies every part of the empire, even down to the minutest member... All this, I know well enough, will sound wild and chimerical to the profane herd of those vulgar and mechanical politicians, who have no place among us; a sort of people who think that nothing exists but what is gross and material; and who therefore, far from being qualified to be directors of the great movement of empire, are not fit to turn a wheel in the machine. But to men truly initiated and rightly taught, these ruling and master principles, which in the opinion of such men as I have mentioned, have no substantial existence, are in truth everything, and all in all. Magnanimity in politicks is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. If we are conscious of our station and glow with zeal to fill our places as becomes our situation and ourselves, we ought to ... elevate our minds to the greatness of that trust to which the order England of Providence has called us. By adverting to the dignity of this high calling, our ancestors have turned a savage wilderness into a glorious empire; and have made the most extensive, and the only honourable conquests, not by destroying, but by promoting the wealth, the number, the happiness, of the human race. 410 Milton is speaking 1643 And lest som should perswade ye, Lords and Commons, that these arguments of lerned men . . . are meer flourishes, and not reall, I could recount what I have seen and heard in other Countries, where this kind of inquisition tyrannizes; when I have sat among their lerned men, for that honor I had,-- and bin counted happy to be born in such a place of Philosophic freedom, as they suppos'd England was, while themselvs did nothing but bemoan the servil condition into which lerning amongst them was brought; that this was it which had dampt the glory of Italian wits; that nothing had bin there writt'n now these many years but flattery and fustian. There it was that I found and visited the famous Galileo grown old, a pris'ner to the Inquisition, for thinking in Astronomy otherwise than the Franciscan and Dominican licencers thought. And though I knew that England then was groaning loudest under the Prelatical yoak, neverthelesse I tooke it as a pledge of future happines, that other Nations were so perswaded of her liberty. Yet was it beyond my hope that those Worthies were then breathing in her air, who should be her leaders to such a deliverance, as shall never be forgott'n by any revolution of time that this world hath to finish... |