Parliament. All the conditions grow more definite and seem, perhaps, too
exacting; remember the greatness of the enterprise. Suppose in the
building of a mighty edifice the architect at any point were careless or
slurred over a difficulty, trusting to luck to bring it right, how the
whole building would go awry, and what a mighty collapse would follow.
Let us stick to our colours and have no fear. When all these principles
have been combined into one consistent whole, a light will flash over
the land and the old spirit will be reborn; the mean will be purged of
their meanness, the timid heartened with a fine courage, and the
fearless will be justified: the land will be awake, militant, and
marching to victory.


VI


This is, surely, the fine view of loyalty. Let us write it on our
banners and proclaim it to the world. It is consistent, _honourable_,
fearless and immutable. What is said here to-day with enthusiasm,
exactness and care, will stand without emendation or enlargement, if in
a temporary reverse we are called to stand in the dock to-morrow; or if,
finely purged in the battle of freedom, we come through our last fight
with splendid triumph, our loyalty is there still, shining like a great
sun, the same beautiful, unchanging thing that has lighted us through
every struggle--perhaps now to guide us in framing a constitution and
giving to a world, distracted by kings, presidents and theorists, a new
polity for nations. A waverer, half-caught between the light, half
fearful with an old fear, pleads: "This is too much--we are men, not
angels." Precisely, we are not angels; and because of our human
weakness, our erring minds, our sudden passions, the most confident of