It is to the self-government of England, and
to no lesser cause, that we are to look for the secret of that boundless
vitality which has given to men of English speech the uttermost parts of
the earth for an inheritance. The conquest of Canada first demonstrated
this truth, and when--in the two following lectures--we shall have made
some approach towards comprehending its full import, we shall all, I
think, be ready to admit that the triumph of Wolfe marks the greatest
turning-point as yet discernible in modern history.
II.
_THE FEDERAL UNION_.
The great history of Thukydides, which after twenty-three centuries
still ranks (in spite of Mr. Cobden) among our chief text-books of
political wisdom, has often seemed to me one of the most mournful books
in the world. At no other spot on the earth's surface, and at no other
time in the career of mankind, has the human intellect flowered with
such luxuriance as at Athens during the eighty-five years which
intervened between the victory of Marathon and the defeat of
AEgospotamos. In no other like interval of time, and in no other
community of like dimensions, has so much work been accomplished of
which we can say with truth that it is [Greek: ktaema es aei],--an
eternal possession. It is impossible to conceive of a day so distant, or
an era of culture so exalted, that the lessons taught by Athens shall
cease to be of value, or that the writings of her great thinkers shall
cease to be read with fresh profit and delight.
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