II
nativ in the sinew of selfhood, the life of things,the pride of animals, and virtue of savagery,so long as men be savage such it remaineth;and mid the smoke and gas of its new armourystill, with its tatter'd colours and gilt swords of state,retaineth its old glory untarnish'd—heroism,self-sacrifice, disciplin, and those hardy virtues880of courage honour'd in Brasidas, without whichman's personality were meaner than the brutes.
Who hath not known this pictur?—on a hot afternoonof our high summer in August at the country-seatof some vext politician, if in their flashing carsthe county-folk gather to his holiday garden,where for their entertainment he hath outspredd the lawnswith tents and furnish'd tables, flags and tennis-nets,—if haply he hav set up to dignify his groundsa classic statue of marble, fetch'd by ship from Greece,890that standeth there in true ideal nakednessmid parasols and silks, how with blank shadow'd eyesit looketh off from all those aimless idlers therethat flaunt around, now and again blurting perchancea shamefast shallow tribute to its beauteous presence!—'tis very like among common concourse of men,
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