Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/42

58 little justice; no taxes, but neither are there any roads; a quiet life, but no noble endeavors in which man unites to conquer nature. I have seen freedom so enthusiastic that it resembled drunkenness; I have seen her so tardy and self-absorbed that it was the same thing as egotism.

“Do not imitate the old; even virtue imitated is virtue no longer; truth becomes prejudice. But since you are penetrated by the grandeur of the former ages, lift up your eyes to the heights on which the genius of humanity abides.. It is from him that you must derive your strength.

“Our most dangerous opponents live in the midst of us; our most fearful enemies are within our own bosoms. The most fearful of these are those which bring death into the soul, which sap the foundations of truth and justice, which trample upon the doctrines which are the guards of virtue, and the consolation of the sorrowful. The man who will persuade us that Winkelried and the betrayer of the fatherland sleep the same sleep, is far more terrible than powder and shot to the peace of our domestic hearth. He endeavors to deprive us of that trust which is the sanctuary of freedom.” These are words which apply equally to all free people, and deserve to be considered by all. Whilst I read, I seemed to myself to be sitting by a fountain amongst the Alps, whose pure stream refreshes the waters of the river in its course through villages and towns.

Man, nation, humanity, eternal union! The day when I first understood this great concord, was that