There are some who _think_ they gain! In the background we catch sight
of misty figures; we know the old tread; we hear the rustle of paper,
passing from hand to hand, and we know the fall of gold; it is an old
familiar sound in Africa; we know it now! There are some who _think_
they gain! Will they gain?
* * * * *
But it may be said, “What matter who goads England on, or in whose
cause she undertakes war against Africans; this at least is certain,
she can win. We have the ships, we have the men, we have the money.”
We answer, “Yes, might generally conquers--for a time at least.” The
greatest empire upon earth, on which the sun never sets, with its five
hundred million subjects, may rise up in its full majesty of power and
glory, and crush thirty thousand farmers. It may not be a victory, but
at least it will be a slaughter. We ought to win. We have the ships,
we have the men, and we have the money. May there not be something
else we need? The Swiss had it when they fought with Austria; the three
hundred had it at Thermopylae, although not a man was saved; it goes to
make a victory. Is it worth fighting if we have not got it?
I suppose there is no man who to-day loves his country who has not
perceived that in the life of the nation, as in the life of the
individual, the hour of external success may be the hour of irrevocable
failure, and that the hour of death, whether to nations or individuals,
is often the hour of immortality. When William the Silent, with his
little band of Dutchmen, rose up to face the whole Empire of Spain, I
think there is no man who does not recognize that the hour of their
greatest victory was not when they had conquered Spain, and hurled
backward the greatest Empire of the world to meet its slow imperial
death; it was the hour when that little band stood alone with the
waters over their homes,