We must travel that path
rightly. We can so travel whatever the enemy's mind. More difficult it
will be, but it can be done. That is the great significance and
justification of Nationalism: it is the unanswerable argument to
cosmopolitanism. If the greatness and beauty of life that ought to be
the dream of all nations is denied by all but one, that one may keep
alive the dream within her own frontier till its fascination will arrest
and inspire the world. If this ultimate dream is still floating far off,
in its pursuit there is for us achievement on achievement, and each
brave thing done is in itself a beauty and a joy for ever. For the good
fighter there is always fine recompense; a clear mind, warm blood, quick
imagination, grasp of life and joy in action, and at the end of day
always an eminence won. Yes, and from the height of that eminence will
come ringing down to the last doubter a last word: we may reach the
mountaintops in aspiring to the stars.
CHAPTER V
THE SECRET OF STRENGTH
I
To win our freedom we must be strong. But what is the secret of
strength? It is fundamental to the whole question to understand this
rightly, and, once grasped, make it the mainstay of individual
existence, which is the foundation of national life. So much has the
bodily power of over-riding minorities been made the criterion of
absolute power, that to make clear the truth requires patience, insight,
and a little mental study.
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