e, or learn prudence by which we may avoid, such
submission is not only degrading, but pernicious. I address these words
to those who have feeling, but whose judgment is overpowered by their
feelings:--such as have not, and who are mere slaves of curiosity,
calling perpetually for something new, and being able to create nothing
new for themselves out of old materials, may be left to wander about
under the yoke of their own unprofitable appetite.--Yet not so! Even
these I would include in my request: and conjure them, as they are men,
not to be impatient, while I place before their eyes, a composition made
out of fragments of those Declarations from various parts of the
Peninsula, which, disposed as it were in a tesselated pavement, shall
set forth a story which may be easily understood; which will move and
teach, and be consolatory to him who looks upon it. I say, consolatory:
and let not the Reader shrink from the word. I am well aware of the
burthen which is to be supported, of the discountenance from recent
calamity under which every thing, which speaks of hope for the Spanish
people, and through _them_ for mankind, will be received. But this, far
from deterring, ought to be an encouragement; it makes the duty more
imperious. Nevertheless, whatever confidence any individual of
meditative mind may have in these representations of the principles and
feelings of the people of Spain, both as to their sanctity and truth,
and as to their competence in ordinary circumstances to make these
acknowledged, it would be unjust to recall them to the public mind,
stricken as it is by present disaster, without attempting to mitigate
the bewildering terror which accompanies these events, and which is
caused as much by their nearness to the eye, as by any thing in their
own nature. I shall, however, at present confine myself to suggest a few
considerations, some of which will be developed hereafter, when I resume
the subject.

It appears then, that the Spanish armies have sustained great defeats,
and have been compelled to abandon their positions, and that these
reverses have been effected by an army greatly superior to the Spanish
forces in number, and far excelling them in the art and practice of war.
This is the sum of those tidings, which it was natural we should
receive with sorrow, but which too many have received with dismay and
despair, though surely no events could be more in the course of rational
expectation. And what is th