But it is not so much this which I have to speak to you about now, as
how this Rome became so great; for it was at first nothing but a poor
little country town, without money, armies, trade, or any of those
things which shallow-minded people fancy are the great strength of a
nation. True, all those things are good; but they are useless and
hurtful--and, what is more, they cannot be got--without something
better than them; something which you cannot see nor handle;
something spiritual, which is the life and heart of a country or
nation, and without which it can never become great. This the old
Romans had; and it made them become great. This we English have had
for now fifteen hundred years; even when our forefathers were
heathens, like the Romans, before we came into this good land of
England, while we were poor and simple people, living in the barren
moors of Germany, and the snowy mountains of Norway; even then we had
this wonderful charm, by which nations are sure to become great and
powerful at last; and in proportion as we have remembered and acted
upon it, we English have thriven and spread; and whenever we have
forgotten it and broken it, we have fallen into distress, and
poverty, and shame, over the whole land.
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