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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Personal Volume
The Soul of a Nation
The Soul of a Nation.
"A heroic act is incorporated into the soul of a nation. It becomes to that nation a heritage more precious than gold. It gives the nation an ideal of courage, of self-sacrifice, of nobility. And poor, indeed, is that nation which has no soul, which has no past history that can vivify and inspire its citizens. The Anzacs have given us this inspiration, have laid up for Us this crown of glory, just as Leonidas das and his small army have inspired all the world. And as long as the English language endures this story will go ringing down the ages and inspiring the future generations of our race. This is what the Anzac have done for us. Browning says in his great poem, 'The Ring and the Book,' The moral sense grows best by exercise.' We have seen is exercised.
Mother of Freedom pledged to Right,
From honour's path, she would not stray,
But sternly faithful used her night
To lead mankind the nobler way.
My England, patient, valiant, true,
Not foes without, nor frauds within
Will shake her purpose to sublue
The cohorts of embattled sin
This eloquent peroration was greeted with loud and long-continued applause.
His Honour, Sir John Demiston, briefly, but heartily, supporter the toast, as also did the Hon. Arthur M. Myers.