Talk not of the perishable nature of enthusiasm; and rise above a craving for perpetual manifestations of things.  He is to be pitied whose eye can only be pierced by the light of a meridian sun, whose frame can only be warmed by the heat of midsummer.  Let us hear no more of the little dependence to be had in war upon voluntary service.  The things, with which we are primarily and mainly concerned, are inward passions; and not outward arrangements.  These latter may be given at any time; when the parts, to be put together, are in readiness.  Hatred and love, and each in its intensity, and pride (passions which, existing in the heart of a Nation, are inseparable from hope)—­these elements being in constant preparation—­enthusiasm will break out from them, or coalesce with them, upon the summons of a moment.  And these passions are scarcely less than inextinguishable.  The truth of this is recorded in the manners and hearts of North and South Britons, of Englishmen and Welshmen, on either border of the Tweed and of the Esk, on both sides of the Severn and the Dee; an inscription legible, and in strong characters, which the tread of many and great blessings, continued through hundreds of years, has been unable to efface.  The Sicilian Vespers are to this day a familiar game among the boys of the villages on the sides of Mount Etna, and through every corner of the Island; and ‘Exterminate the French!’ is the action in their arms, and the word of triumph upon their tongues.  He then is a sorry Statist, who desponds or despairs (nor is he less so who is too much elevated) from any considerations connected with the quality of enthusiasm.  Nothing is so easy as to sustain it by partial and gradual changes of its object; and by placing it in the way of receiving new interpositions according to the need.  The difficulty lies—­not in kindling, feeding, or fanning the flame; but in continuing so to regulate the relations of things—­that the fanning breeze and the feeding fuel shall come from no unworthy quarter, and shall neither of them be wanting in appropriate consecration.  The Spaniards have as great helps towards ensuring this, as ever were vouchsafed to a People.

What then is to be desired?  Nothing but that the Government and the higher orders of society should deal sincerely towards the middle class and the lower:  I mean, that the general temper should be sincere.—­It is not required that every one should be disinterested, or zealous, or of one mind with his fellows.  Selfishness or slackness in individuals, and in certain bodies of men also (and at time’s perhaps in all), have their use:  else why should they exist?  Due circumspection and necessary activity, in those who are sound, could not otherwise maintain themselves.  The deficiencies in one quarter are more than made up by consequent overflowings in another.  ‘If my Neighbour fails,’ says the true Patriot, ‘more devolves upon me.’  Discord and even treason are not, in a country situated as Spain