that they became so at once:  there had not been time for them to court their power:  their fancies had not been fed to wantonness by ever-changing temptations:  obstinacy in them would not have leagued itself with trivial opinions:  petty hatreds had not accumulated to masses of strength conflicting perniciously with each other:  vanity with them had not found leisure to flourish—­nor presumption:  they did not assume their authority,—­it was given them,—­it was thrust upon them.  The perfidy and tyranny of Napoleon ‘compelled,’ says the Junta of Seville in words before quoted, ’the whole Nation to take up arms and to choose itself a form of government; and, in the difficulties and dangers into which the French had plunged it, all—­or nearly all—­the provinces, as it were by the inspiration of Heaven and in a manner little short of miraculous, created Supreme Juntas—­delivered themselves up to their guidance—­and placed in their hands the rights and the ultimate fate of Spain.’—­Governments, thus newly issued from the people, could not but act from the spirit of the people—­be organs of their life.  And, though misery (by which I mean pain of mind not without some consciousness of guilt) naturally disorders the understanding and perverts the moral sense,—­calamity (that is suffering, individual or national, when it has been inflicted by one to whom no injury has been done or provocation given) ever brings wisdom along with it; and, whatever outward agitation it may cause, does inwardly rectify the will.

But more was required; not merely judicious desires; not alone an eye from which the scales had dropped off—­which could see widely and clearly; but a mighty hand was wanting.  The government had been formed; and it could not but recollect that the condition of Spain did not exact from her children, as a first requisite, virtues like those due and familiar impulses of Spring-time by which things are revived and carried forward in accustomed health according to established order—­not power so much for a renewal as for a birth—­labour by throes and violence;—­a chaos was to be conquered—­a work of creation begun and consummated;—­and afterwards the seasons were to advance, and continue their gracious revolutions.  The powers, which were needful for the people to enter upon and assist in this work, had been given; we have seen that they had been bountifully conferred.  The Nation had been thrown into—­rather, lifted up to—­that state when conscience, for the body of the people, is not merely an infallible monitor (which may be heard and disregarded); but, by combining—­with the attributes of insight to perceive, and of inevitable presence to admonish and enjoin—­the attribute of passion to enforce, it was truly an all-powerful deity in the soul.