In so holy a cause it was presumed
that he would (as in the beginning of the war he did) have opened all
the temples, and with prayer, with fasting, and with supplication,
(better directed than to the grim Moloch of Regicide in France,) have
called upon us to raise that united cry which has: so often stormed
heaven, and with a pious violence forced down blessings upon a repentant
people. It was hoped, that, when he had invoked upon his endeavors the
favorable regard of the Protector of the human race, it would be seen
that his menaces to the enemy and his prayers to the Almighty were not
followed, but accompanied, with correspondent action. It was hoped that
his shrilling trumpet should be heard, not to announce a show, but to
sound a charge.
Such a conclusion to such a declaration and such a speech would have
been a thing of course,--so much a thing of course, that I will be bold
to say, if in any ancient history, the Roman for instance, (supposing
that in Rome the matter of such a detail could have been furnished,) a
consul had gone through such a long train of proceedings, and that there
was a chasm in the manuscripts by which we had lost the conclusion of
the speech and the subsequent part of the narrative, all critics would
agree that a Freinshemius would have been thought to have managed the
supplementary business of a continuator most unskillfully, and to have
supplied the hiatus most improbably, if he had not filled up the gaping
space in a manner somewhat similar (though better executed) to what I
have imagined.
Pages:
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432