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Article THE ADVENTURES OF DON PASQUALE. ← Page 2 of 3 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Adventures Of Don Pasquale.
defunct empire , the whole course of civil , domestic , family , and public life in Europe ! HOAV , in fact ,, as it Avere , out of its ashes , the fires of learning , of taste , of government and of religion have mounted upwards , transfusing ancl transforming the savage barbarity of Gothic and Vandalic conquerors , Avith the gradually augmenting and reviving poiver .. of Lav ? , Liberty , and Refinement , religious emotion , and artistic civilization !
Ancl in tbe meantime—amid the charms . of a cultvated and elevated social circle Paesiello ' s sympathies expanded , and his inner psychology developed . Borne taiHifc him , if not " CiAds Bomanus sum , " at any rate this most important truth , that there are world-Avide links and interests which blend into one plan even here , and Avhich none can forget , Avithout clanger to themselves , AA'ithout becoming Avarped in opinion , or narrow in judgment . Though a great believer in Patriotism , I have over ancl over again realized
Avhat stout old Johnson meant , Aidien he so dogmatically declared that it Avas " the refuge of a scoundrel . " You and I , kindly patrons of the MASONIC MAGAZINE , have lived Ion " enough to knoAv IIOAV true it is that many a knave Avhen all other trades fail him , when society expels him , or the moral sense of mankind remits him to Coventry , proclaims himself a suffering Patriot for conscience sake . The ancient ancl modern history of the world teems Avith the successes of the charlatan , the empiric , and the " Escroc , " who
under the specious name of Patriotism , has preyed upon tbe resources of credulous friends , or the honest sympathies of a deluded people ! And so , though I always like the famous Lord Malmesbury ' s simple yet thorough motto— " ubique patriam reminisci , "—though I can still feel proud of the man when I am told of William Pitt's noble apothegm , " non sibi seel Patrise , "—though I hope that , like all good loyal Englishmen , I am always ready to sing " Bule Britannia , " and to say , " hats off ; God save the Queen ! " ( ancl to make people take off their hats , too , ) I yet feel strongly that the proposition of Patriotism has , and must have , some limitation .
We good , free " citizens of Bulldom , " " male ancl female Bulls , " as witty Lord Bokeby used to like to say , Ave have a national tradition , that there is nothing good out of England , nothing does Avell out of England , nothing is safe or sound but English laAvs , English customs , the English Constitution 1 NOAV for all these things I have , for one , the most ardent admiration . I believe in them fully , entirely , and I am always ready to break a lance Avith any one Avho doubts the fact , that Ave are a " Avise ancl understanding people" ancl oneperhapsof the greatest of nationalities which ever has
, , , existed , or eA er Avill exist on earth , in the good ProA idence of God . But then Ave sing this national p _ ean of ours sometimes a little too loudly in foreign ears . We do not make sufficient alloAvanee for the " amour propre , " or natural susceptibilities of other people . We forget that some other nations may like to think themselves very nearly as good as Ave are , and Ave do not realize the possibility that Ave and they may look at the same thing from a different point of the compassthat other
, peoples beside ourselves may in fact hold the same truth also as a matter of faith . Foreigners , therefore , often think us supercilious , intolerant , haughty , overbearing , impracticable , Avhen , in fact , all this arises from an overpowering habit of Britannic selflaudation ancl self-esteem 1
I for one , as you observe , do not affect to deny that Ave may have a good ground for all we advance and assert , ancl Ave are epiite right in doing so , but Avhere Ave err is , in my opinion , in expecting other nations to agree with us , ancl doubting their sense or propriety when they do not do so . And thus we have yet to learn , as Time runs on , bringing its mighty changes , levelling artificial distinctions , to become a little more truly " citizens of the Avorld , " to look beneath tho level of foreign institutions and national distinctionsancl to believe that there is something goodsomething of utilitysomething
, , , for tho common weal in all alike , the most contrasted and tho most differing . But where am I going to . I had meant to talk of love , ancl I have been discussing the dry ancl abstract proposition of Patriotism , —very different things , —ancl therefore 1 must leave for another chapter , what is so much more interesting , and certainly so much more sentimental !
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Adventures Of Don Pasquale.
defunct empire , the whole course of civil , domestic , family , and public life in Europe ! HOAV , in fact ,, as it Avere , out of its ashes , the fires of learning , of taste , of government and of religion have mounted upwards , transfusing ancl transforming the savage barbarity of Gothic and Vandalic conquerors , Avith the gradually augmenting and reviving poiver .. of Lav ? , Liberty , and Refinement , religious emotion , and artistic civilization !
Ancl in tbe meantime—amid the charms . of a cultvated and elevated social circle Paesiello ' s sympathies expanded , and his inner psychology developed . Borne taiHifc him , if not " CiAds Bomanus sum , " at any rate this most important truth , that there are world-Avide links and interests which blend into one plan even here , and Avhich none can forget , Avithout clanger to themselves , AA'ithout becoming Avarped in opinion , or narrow in judgment . Though a great believer in Patriotism , I have over ancl over again realized
Avhat stout old Johnson meant , Aidien he so dogmatically declared that it Avas " the refuge of a scoundrel . " You and I , kindly patrons of the MASONIC MAGAZINE , have lived Ion " enough to knoAv IIOAV true it is that many a knave Avhen all other trades fail him , when society expels him , or the moral sense of mankind remits him to Coventry , proclaims himself a suffering Patriot for conscience sake . The ancient ancl modern history of the world teems Avith the successes of the charlatan , the empiric , and the " Escroc , " who
under the specious name of Patriotism , has preyed upon tbe resources of credulous friends , or the honest sympathies of a deluded people ! And so , though I always like the famous Lord Malmesbury ' s simple yet thorough motto— " ubique patriam reminisci , "—though I can still feel proud of the man when I am told of William Pitt's noble apothegm , " non sibi seel Patrise , "—though I hope that , like all good loyal Englishmen , I am always ready to sing " Bule Britannia , " and to say , " hats off ; God save the Queen ! " ( ancl to make people take off their hats , too , ) I yet feel strongly that the proposition of Patriotism has , and must have , some limitation .
We good , free " citizens of Bulldom , " " male ancl female Bulls , " as witty Lord Bokeby used to like to say , Ave have a national tradition , that there is nothing good out of England , nothing does Avell out of England , nothing is safe or sound but English laAvs , English customs , the English Constitution 1 NOAV for all these things I have , for one , the most ardent admiration . I believe in them fully , entirely , and I am always ready to break a lance Avith any one Avho doubts the fact , that Ave are a " Avise ancl understanding people" ancl oneperhapsof the greatest of nationalities which ever has
, , , existed , or eA er Avill exist on earth , in the good ProA idence of God . But then Ave sing this national p _ ean of ours sometimes a little too loudly in foreign ears . We do not make sufficient alloAvanee for the " amour propre , " or natural susceptibilities of other people . We forget that some other nations may like to think themselves very nearly as good as Ave are , and Ave do not realize the possibility that Ave and they may look at the same thing from a different point of the compassthat other
, peoples beside ourselves may in fact hold the same truth also as a matter of faith . Foreigners , therefore , often think us supercilious , intolerant , haughty , overbearing , impracticable , Avhen , in fact , all this arises from an overpowering habit of Britannic selflaudation ancl self-esteem 1
I for one , as you observe , do not affect to deny that Ave may have a good ground for all we advance and assert , ancl Ave are epiite right in doing so , but Avhere Ave err is , in my opinion , in expecting other nations to agree with us , ancl doubting their sense or propriety when they do not do so . And thus we have yet to learn , as Time runs on , bringing its mighty changes , levelling artificial distinctions , to become a little more truly " citizens of the Avorld , " to look beneath tho level of foreign institutions and national distinctionsancl to believe that there is something goodsomething of utilitysomething
, , , for tho common weal in all alike , the most contrasted and tho most differing . But where am I going to . I had meant to talk of love , ancl I have been discussing the dry ancl abstract proposition of Patriotism , —very different things , —ancl therefore 1 must leave for another chapter , what is so much more interesting , and certainly so much more sentimental !