Patriotism.

And, in conclusion, I would observe that the name of Bruce brings present to the mind the name of a patriot, a warrior, and a King; and where patriots abound there is wavering among the enemies without and the enemies within. The demagogue and the discontented disappear. Though we need not fear but that order, progress, and the ensuing civilisation will remain to every land where the Jew, the Greek, and the Roman have been and taught; yet it may be profitable to remember that these lived more a public life than we do now. And though it be possible to live too much in the market-place, the forum, or the cafe, it is also possible to live there too little. Men page 158 have a public as well as a private home. If they live too much in the latter, they become selfish and narrow-minded; and cowardice is only found when the foe is at the gate. We have newspapers, it is true, but these can never take the place of the living voice, nor sharpen as a man does the countenance of his friend. It might be therefore worth a thought whether encouragements and incentives to self-sacrifice and patriotism of a more special form should not be offered to the people. One could not but notice what happened at Auckland the other day. A man died there and left a large property to that city in land and money, to the amount, it was said, of £130,000. His memory might have been spared the coarse reflections made on it immediately afterwards. Among the ruins of Palmyra, which, if the home railway be made we may yet all easily visit, you may see still standing in a fair state of preservation, in the principal street and on each side of it, a long line of columns. These columns were erected by the citizens in honour of any of themselves who were distinguished for public spirit or heroism. Nothing struck me more in Paris than the column in the Place de la Bastille. It is erected on the site of that famous prison house which the people attacked and destroyed. It is of bronze, of great height, and crowned with the figure of Victory. On the pedestal we are informed that it page 159 was raised to the "glory of the French citizens who assembled and fought" in 1789. The names of these French citizens cover its shaft from top to bottom. The time may come here when the foundations of a national monument or Temple of Fame should be laid.

1883.