CHAP. I.]

ST. JOHN OF JERUSALEM.

15

minds; but to others it will associate with some-thing dear, as a struggle to express what cannotbe expressed by mortal, or scarcely; that sacred,forbidden and undiscovered word, which may pos-sibly be felt, but if it could be pronounced wouldenamour, or peradventure instantly destroy, thewhole creation.

This German-like anticipation of future grandeur(within the limits of our present world) is curiouslyexemplified by an individual of the Imperial race,who, though himself generally a vagrant, and neversafe even in his bed, yet was so persuaded of thehigh destinies of his family, that he always wrote inhis books the famous Austrian device, A E I 0 U,initials of Austrice est imperare Orbi Universo. Thissomewhat wild state of the imagination, productiveof a voluntary death for freedom or religion, is notwithout an analogy to that ascetic exaltation whichhas spirited away myriads to the wilderness; forwhom fanatics w r ere too harsh a name. Heavenspreserve us! Any how such were not idly standingwith their arms a-kimbo; but in deep thought, pre-paratory to something out of the common run.

But the land of the free—or of humbug, pre-tension, and clatter, as some have presumed to callher —. land of amazing contrasts and contradic-tions, fair and noble England, neither was she an