shall wear the greenest laurel, Who shall greatest zeal display "
Here we have an American poet, who would exult in the massacre of Glencoe, sing peans to the Duke of Alva, and crown with the greenest laurels the butchers of the Albigenses.
" Our country right or wrong," is rebellion against the moral Government of Jehovah, and treason to the cause of civil and rehgious liberty, of justice and humanity.
Actions springing from mere selfishness, rarely command the respect of mankind, and the patriotism that is self-denying and costly, is more likely to be genuine than that which is lucrative. Tried by this test, there is com- paratively but little patriotism in the world. The dema- gogue, who echoes the clamor of the mob, and thus opens to himself an avenue to wealth and power, gives a very inconclusive proof of his patriotism ; while he who, in promoting what he belie'^es to be the pubhc weal, exposes himself to obloquy and loss, may reasonably be regarded as governed by disinterested motives.