Karl Ludwig Sand - Celebrated Crimes by Alexandre Dumas père
page 32 of 74 (43%)
page 32 of 74 (43%)
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deliverance of humanity by the holy sacrifice of Thy Son. Grant that I
may be a Christ of Germany, and that, like and through Jesus, I may be strong and patient in suffering." But the anti-republican pamphlets of Kotzebue increased in number and gained a fatal influence upon the minds of rulers. Nearly all the persons who were attacked in these pamphlets were known and esteemed at Jena; and it may easily be comprehended what effects were produced by such insults upon these young heads and noble hearts, which carried conviction to the paint of blindness and enthusiasm to that of fanaticism. Thus, here is what Sand wrote in his diary on the 5th of May. "Lord, what causes this melancholy anguish which has again taken possession of me? But a firm and constant will surmounts everything, and the idea of the country gives joy and courage to the saddest and the weakest. When I think of that, I am always amazed that there is none among us found courageous enough to drive a knife into the breast of Kotzebue or of any other traitor." Still dominated by the same thought, he continues thus on the 18th of May:-- "A man is nothing in comparison with a nation; he is a unity compared with millions, a minute compared with a century. A man, whom nothing precedes and nothing follows, is born, lives, and dies in a longer or shorter time, which, relatively to eternity, hardly equals the duration of a lightning flash. A nation, on the contrary, is immortal." |
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