Of course, my dear sir, every power has its dangers—the greater, the profounder, the more penetrating and vital the power, the greater the danger. But is this the way that a Philosopher begins to treat of a power—with hesitation and distrust—inauspiciously auspicating his inquiry? The common—the better—the true order of treatment is by Use and, Abuse—Use first. "Expectations above the level of our present existence!" Of course—that when the heaven on earth fails, we may have learnt "to expect above the level of our present existence," and go on doing so more and more, till Earth shall fade and Heaven open.
SEWARD.
"Frequently produces a youth of enthusiastic hope!" Is this proposed as a perversion and calamity, a "youth" to be deprecated?
NORTH.
I really don't know—it looks almost like it.
SEWARD.
Will you say Wo and Alas! for the City—Wo and Alas! for the Nation—in which princes, and nobles, and the gentle of blood—and the merchants, and the husbandmen, and the peasants, and the artisans, suffer under this endemic and feverous malady—a "youth of enthusiastic hope?" Methinks, sir, you would expect there to find an overflow of Pericles's, and Pindars, and Phidias's, and Shakspeares, and Chathams, and Wolfes—
BULLER.
Stop, Seward—spare us the Catalogue.
SEWARD.