FROM THE SPANISH MONARCHY. 185 



exact account was made of their own powers previous 

 to the attempt ; or, that, on the firft embarkation on 

 this uncertain fea, they knew already at what itiore 

 they Ihould afterwards arrive. The enterprife never 

 appeared in the mind of its author fo mature, fo bold 

 and fo glorious as it proved in the end, any more than 

 the everlafting feparation in religious fentiments was 

 thought of by Luther when he firft flood up againft 

 the fale of indulgences. How great the difference 

 between the humble manners of that beggar in BriuTels, 

 who implored an act of humanity as a gracious boon, 

 and the formidable majefty of a free ftate, treating with 

 kings upon a footing of equality ; and, in lefs than one 

 century, difpofing of the throne of its former tyrants ! 

 The invinble hand of fate conducted the lanced arrow 

 in a different direction from that in which it parted 

 from the bow drawn by a mortars arm. In the bofom 

 of fortunate Brabant that freedom was born, which 

 while yet an infant was ravifhed from its mother, and 

 given to blefs defpifed Holland. But we are not to de- 

 tract from the grandeur of the enterprife, becaufe it 

 terminated differently from what might be at firft ima- 

 gined. A familiar intercourfe with the world in prefent 

 and in former times ought long ago to have cured us 

 of this vanity. Man hews, polifhes and cuts out the 

 rude marble which time brings forth to view ; to him 

 belongs the moment and the point, but hiftory brings 

 forward the event. If the paflions which fhewed them- 

 felves bufy in this tranfaction, were not unworthy of 

 the work to which they fecretly ferved — if the powers 

 that helped to produce it, and the particular actions, 

 from the concatenation whereof it furprifingly grew, 



were 



