Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Circumstances Which Render The Retrospect Of Past Ages Agreeable.
ourselves to be in company with men who arc compatriots , of manners and sentiments corresponding with our own . How does a British , audience applaud' language of this kind , ling-land never didj nor ever shall Lie at the proud feet of « coiKj ' . ieror ; But whenit first did help to wound itself ! K . JOH . S ' .
The forcible effect ' produced by such passages arises from our perceiving at once , that we of this country are still the same with those of past ages , that we think the same , and talk the same . The Araucana of Ercilla , and Luciad of . Camoens , must , no doubt , be highly interesting to the Spaniard and Portuguese , for the same reasons which operate on our minds at the representation of subjects from our
national-- history . When we reflect on the constitution under which we live , we glory in the thought that we of this age are as our ancestors who effected the Revolution ; that is , who asserted the just rights of the people at large . From the memorable period of the Revolution we are at once carried back to the Baronswho bravely compelled an oppressive *
, -tyrant , to ratif y that basis of English liberty , the ' Magna Charta : ' thence we pass to the days of Edward the Confessor , and seem to live with our countrymen who from him received The law of Freedom , which to Britain ' s shore ,
From Saxon E / va ' s many-headed flood , The valiant sons of Odin with them bore , - Their national , aoior'd , inseparable good . IVesl ' s Institution of the Garter . To be engaged in the same-cause with men of past ages is another connecting circumstance . When Demosthenes broke out into that animated and sublime apostrophe" You cannotyou cannot possibly
, , have done wrong , you men of Athens ,, in hazarding your lives for public liberty : no ; . by your ancestors , who encountered the same " dangers at Marathon , by those who were marshalled in baltle-airay at Platjea , by those who at Salamis , by those , who at . Artemisium , gained naval victories , I swear it . " When the Grecian orator thus justified his fellow-citizens , at least for imitating their ancestors in
endeavouring , like them , to repel an insolent invader , the heart of every Athenian must have beat high , and . every man present must have felt as though the soul of his forefather had been trans-. 'fused into his own breast . Shakspeare , with great propriety , makes the king of France exhort his soldiers to vigorous exertion , by reminding them that Henry was ' a stem of . that victorious stock' of warriors who had fought at Cressy :
The kindred him hath been flesh'el upon us ; ; - . And he is bred out of that bloody strain That . haunted us in our familiar paths .. Witness the tod much memorable shame When Cressy battle fatally was struck , Aiid all our princes captur'd , by the hand Of that black name , Edward black Prince of Wales . Henry \ - \ act 11 . se , ± .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Circumstances Which Render The Retrospect Of Past Ages Agreeable.
ourselves to be in company with men who arc compatriots , of manners and sentiments corresponding with our own . How does a British , audience applaud' language of this kind , ling-land never didj nor ever shall Lie at the proud feet of « coiKj ' . ieror ; But whenit first did help to wound itself ! K . JOH . S ' .
The forcible effect ' produced by such passages arises from our perceiving at once , that we of this country are still the same with those of past ages , that we think the same , and talk the same . The Araucana of Ercilla , and Luciad of . Camoens , must , no doubt , be highly interesting to the Spaniard and Portuguese , for the same reasons which operate on our minds at the representation of subjects from our
national-- history . When we reflect on the constitution under which we live , we glory in the thought that we of this age are as our ancestors who effected the Revolution ; that is , who asserted the just rights of the people at large . From the memorable period of the Revolution we are at once carried back to the Baronswho bravely compelled an oppressive *
, -tyrant , to ratif y that basis of English liberty , the ' Magna Charta : ' thence we pass to the days of Edward the Confessor , and seem to live with our countrymen who from him received The law of Freedom , which to Britain ' s shore ,
From Saxon E / va ' s many-headed flood , The valiant sons of Odin with them bore , - Their national , aoior'd , inseparable good . IVesl ' s Institution of the Garter . To be engaged in the same-cause with men of past ages is another connecting circumstance . When Demosthenes broke out into that animated and sublime apostrophe" You cannotyou cannot possibly
, , have done wrong , you men of Athens ,, in hazarding your lives for public liberty : no ; . by your ancestors , who encountered the same " dangers at Marathon , by those who were marshalled in baltle-airay at Platjea , by those who at Salamis , by those , who at . Artemisium , gained naval victories , I swear it . " When the Grecian orator thus justified his fellow-citizens , at least for imitating their ancestors in
endeavouring , like them , to repel an insolent invader , the heart of every Athenian must have beat high , and . every man present must have felt as though the soul of his forefather had been trans-. 'fused into his own breast . Shakspeare , with great propriety , makes the king of France exhort his soldiers to vigorous exertion , by reminding them that Henry was ' a stem of . that victorious stock' of warriors who had fought at Cressy :
The kindred him hath been flesh'el upon us ; ; - . And he is bred out of that bloody strain That . haunted us in our familiar paths .. Witness the tod much memorable shame When Cressy battle fatally was struck , Aiid all our princes captur'd , by the hand Of that black name , Edward black Prince of Wales . Henry \ - \ act 11 . se , ± .