It is not by deliberate,
but by careless selfishness; not by compromise with evil, but by dull
following of good, that the weight of national evil increases upon us
daily. Break through at least this pretence of existence; determine
what you will be, and what you would win. You will not decide wrongly
if you resolve to decide at all. Were even the choice between lawless
pleasure and loyal suffering, you would not, I believe, choose basely.
But your trial is not so sharp. It is between drifting in confused
wreck among the castaways of Fortune, who condemns to assured ruin
those who know not either how to resist her, or obey; between this, I
say, and the taking of your appointed part in the heroism of Rest; the
resolving to share in the victory which is to the weak rather than the
strong; and the binding yourselves by that law, which, thought on
through lingering night and labouring day, makes a man's life to be as
a tree planted by the water-side, that bringeth forth his fruit in his
season;--
"ET FOLIUM EJUS NON DEFLUET,
ET OMNIA, QUAECUNQUE FACIET, PROSPERABUNTUR."[182]
[172] Turner.
[173] The tool of the engraver on copper.
[174] See _Paradise Lost_, 6. 207 ff., and Hesiod's _Theogony_, 676 ff.
[175] _Henry V_, 4. 3. 29.
[176] _Luke_ ii, 14.
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