206 MEMOIR OF THOMAS BEWICK. 



Patriotism ought to direct every man to do 

 honour to himself and to his country ; and it is in 

 this that great national power principally consists. 

 It is also by the good conduct, and consequent 

 character, of the great mass of the people that a 

 nation is exalted. The crown the richest diamond 

 of our life is the love of our country ; and the 

 man who neglects this, and ceases to reverence 

 and adore his Maker, is good for nothing. "The 

 country, surrounded by the briny deep, where all 

 our ancestors lie buried in which from youth 

 upwards we have felt the benefit of equal laws, 

 first acted upon and handed down to us by the 

 Great Alfred, and maintained from time to time 

 amidst all the attempts of despotism to overturn 

 them, by men famed for matchless wisdom and 

 virtue, a country so renowned as England, so 

 famous for all that most strongly attracts the 

 admiration of men, a country whose genius and 

 power have, for ages, been such as to make her 

 views and intentions an object of solicitude with 

 every nation, and with every enlightened individual 

 in the world, a country famed for her laws, famed 

 in arts and arms, famed for the struggles which, 

 age after age, her sons have held with tyranny 

 in every form it has assumed, and, beyond all 

 these, famed for having given birth to, and reared 

 to manhood, those men of matchless wisdom and 

 virtue whose memories will be held up to admira- 

 tion, and whose example will be followed in ages 

 to come who have rendered the very name of 

 Englishmen respected in every civilized country in 

 the world " (may this be eternal !) should this 

 country ever sink into despotism, its reputation 

 will sink also, and with it the high name of its 



