no part of your politics on such unsteady speculations. But as to any
practice to ensue, are we not yet cured of the malady of speculating on
the circumstances of things totally different from those in which we
live and move? Five years has this monster continued whole and entire in
all its members. Far from falling into a division within itself, it is
augmented by tremendous additions. We cannot bear to look that frightful
form in the face, as it is, and in its own actual shape. We dare not be
wise; we have not the fortitude of rational fear; we will not provide
for our future safety; but we endeavor to hush the cries of present
timidity by guesses at what may be hereafter,--

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow."

Is this our style of talk, when

"all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death"?

Talk not to me of what swarm of republics may come from this carcass! It
is no carcass. Now, now, whilst we are talking, it is full of life and
action. What say you to the Regicide empire of to-day? Tell me, my
friend, do its terrors appall you into an abject submission, or rouse
you to a vigorous defence? But do--I no longer prevent it--do go
on,--look into futurity. Has this empire nothing to alarm you when all
struggle against it is over, when mankind shall be silent before it,
when all nations shall be disarmed, disheartened, and _truly divided_ by
a treacherous peace? Its malignity towards humankind will subsist with
undiminished heat, whilst the means of giving it effect must proceed,
and every means of resisting it must inevitably and rapidly decline.