Whatever may be said of us, and sometimes with too much justice, neither the greed of wealth, nor the love of luxury, nor the theories of the ancien régime, nor the extension of territory for the sake of commerce or national pride, are the things most dear to the people of England, or the things which in this great country move and direct her action in the end. That which is victorious at the last in her, that which sits closest to her breast, is the great powers of the soul of which Wordsworth speaks-self-sacrifice, duty to the great principles of justice and mercy; honour the long descended honour of her free past; love and reverence for the souls of men, not for their outward power and wealth; the ancient principles of national independence and liberty for all nations, which of old isolated her from tyrannies, and bid her stand alone for their sake, relying for a just victory on their immortal power. She has never got any good or done any good to man when she has been betrayed for a time into sitting hand in hand with despotic Powers, with Russia, with a Germany like the present, with an imperial adventurer like Napoleon III., with the Sultan of Turkey. These are not of her family; alliances with them are unnatural to her, and unpractical. They bring disease into her body, they corrupt her society, they injure her commerce as long as it is righteous, they weaken her just power, and they degrade her honourable influence on the world. These views are considered by many persons, and apparently by the present Government, to be mere sentiment, and to be put aside as unpractical and foolish in domestic and still more in foreign politics. Moral questions, and the consideration of the primary passions of the soul of man for justice, pity and freedom, are to be, they think, subordinated to questions of national expediency and self-interest. On the contrary, moral and spiritual questions relating to the action of nations are the foremost practical questions; those, the just answer to which will rule the whole future of a people and its power over mankind for use and good. The very life of a nation, its strength, the lasting success of its policy, depend on that policy being first regulated by obedience at all points to moral right and by its agreement with the just, freedom-loving, courageous, honourable and self-sacrificing instincts of the human soul. This was Wordsworth's deepest conviction when he wrote these Sonnets, and it is summed up in the last of them: The power of armies is a visible thing. It is the conviction, I believe, of far more than half of the English people. PART I I Composed by the Sea-side, near Calais, August 1802 FAIR Star of evening, Splendour of the west, Bright Star! with laughter on her banners, drest II Calais, August 1802 Is it a reed that's shaken by the wind, Or what is it that ye go forth to see? Lords, lawyers, statesmen, squires of low degree, In France, before the new-born Majesty. A seemly reverence may be paid to power; In haste, nor springing with a transient shower: III Composed near Calais, on the road leading to Ardres, JONES! as from Calais southward you and I Beat like the heart of Man: songs, garlands, mirth, IV 1801 I GRIEVED for Buonaparte, with a vain And an unthinking grief! The tenderest mood V Calais, August 15, 1802 FESTIVALS have I seen that were not names: |