Nation is a moral essence, not a
geographical arrangement, or a denomination of the nomenclator. France,
though out of her territorial possession, exists; because the sole
possible claimant, I mean the proprietary, and the government to which
the proprietary adheres, exists, and claims. God forbid, that if you
were expelled from your house by ruffians and assassins, that I should
call the material walls, doors, and windows of --, the ancient and
honourable family of --. Am I to transfer to the intruders, who, not
content to turn you out naked to the world, would rob you of your very
name, all the esteem and respect I owe to you? The regicides in France
are not France. France is out of her bounds, but the kingdom is the
same.
PUBLIC SPIRIT.
Other great states, having been without any regular, certain course
of elevation or decline, we may hope that the British fortune may
fluctuate also; because the public mind, which greatly influences
that fortune, may have its changes. We are therefore never authorised
to abandon our country to its fate, or to act or advise as if it had
no resource. There is no reason to apprehend, because ordinary means
threaten to fail, that no others can spring up. Whilst our heart is
whole, it will find means, or make them. The heart of the citizen is
a perennial spring of energy to the state.
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