Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/144

 120 IMPERIAL YEN. we fear it is already among our higher classes, bring these countries to grief, as it has brought others. The destroyer which this luxurious selfishness raises up comes sometimes from abroad, but always exists at home. For no one powerful kingdom has ever been destroyed, till luxurious selfishness roused a hating enemy within the bosom of that kingdom. It is this internal enemy who is to be dreaded. He may be powerful enough, as once before in Europe, to overturn existing society ; he may prepare the way directly or indirectly for that overturn, by opening the gates to an external foe ; but he will be always sufficiently powerful to deluge the land with blood, to snatch its loved ones from the bosom of luxurious selfishness, and to give it sackcloth for its joyous robea And the rise of this enemy is as certain as the spread of that spirit of universal laissez faire, and the disappearance or weakness of robust, manly, just> and active Philistinism. But if China has so frequently recovered, and will again recover herself, on account of her enormous territories, her internal self-sustaining resources, and her homogeneous population; it is no proof that Britain, lacking all those qualities, would ever again occupy her present proud position, if that growing, luxurious, easy self-indulgence, becomes as powerful as it is eager and threatening to do, so as to command her public, and sway her social life.