RELIGION IN THE LIFE OF NATIONS. G7 



power — the most formidable tliat I know of in the 

 world. A man, or men — no matter which — an individ- 

 nal person or a collective person, bnt any way a i)ersnn 

 l)0ssessin2: nnlimited power, since it rests with one hand 

 on law, and with the other on force — since it has only 

 to will, and there are set in motion millions of beings, 

 and the world receives an impnlse and direction Avhieh 

 controls, more or less, the future itself; how, in such a 

 case, can there help forming little by little, and rising 

 to the heart, that intoxication of pride, and of the fore- 

 most pride of all, the i:)ride of power? Pleasure has 

 Ijeen called the great passion of human nature. It is a 

 mistake. The great passion is domination. To this, 

 men sacrifice everything, even pleasure, when pleas- 

 ure stands in the way of it. 



And in face of these encroachments of power, in face 

 of that towering pride in the hearts of sovereigns ('' their 

 pride ascending forever'),* there is another sort of pride 

 not less detestable, other sorts of outrage not less terri- 

 ble. A people weary with always obeying, with toiling 

 much, and suffering much : a people which looks up- 

 ward, and first envies and then threatens! Chained, 

 like Samson to his grinding in the prison-house, like 

 him it perceives the growing locks of strengtli upon its 

 brow, it heeds its swelling veins, and the vital sap of 

 manhood in its heart. Xow its turn has. come ; it grows 

 drunken with the Avine of its wrath, and reckless of its 

 own ruin, it pulls down the pillars of the edifice Avhich 

 is to crush itself and its oppressors together. 



men and bretliren, gaze upon this great ocean of 

 human society ! Behold these two great waves that 

 heave themselves from its depths — the wave of the 

 People and tlie wave of the Sovereign. They nnnint, 



* Psalm Ixxiv. CS. (Viili;atc vo^^ion.) 



