487, 502, 504.)
From "The Limitations of Human Responsibility."
=_157._= SUPERIORITY OF THE MORAL SENTIMENTS.
It is a common remark, that, whenever it has been thought necessary to
arouse the mind of man to enterprises of great pith and moment, the
appeal has always been made to his moral sentiments. Hence, among the
most ancient nations, it was the invariable custom to accompany the
declaration of war with religious ceremonies; and if, in later times,
this custom has become somewhat less usual, the change itself, in a more
remarkable manner, illustrates the tendency of our nature.... But let
victory declare for the assailed, let the invader become the invaded,
let it become necessary to stimulate men to put forth the highest effort
of human daring, and the sacred names of conscience, of duty to family,
to country, and to God, are universally invoked, and the Supreme Being
is urgently appealed to, to succor the cause of a sinking commonwealth.
It is, perhaps, worth while to remark, in passing, that this
consciousness of right is a source of power which belongs specially to
the oppressed, and which, other things being equal, will always insure
to them the victory; and, when other things are not equal, it is
frequently sufficient, of itself, to outweigh a vast preponderance of
physical force.
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