Answer it not, pass on regarding it not, it will answer itself; the solution for thee is a thing of teeth and claws; Nature is a dumb lioness, deaf to thy pleadings, fiercely devouring.

Thou art not now her victorious bridegroom; thou art her mangled victim, scattered on the precipices, as a slave found treacherous, recreant, ought to be and must.
With Nations it is as with individuals: Can they rede the riddle of Destiny?
This English Nation, will it get to know the meaning of _its_ strange new Today?
Is there sense enough extant, discoverable anywhere or anyhow, in our united twenty-seven million heads to discern the same; valour enough in our twenty-seven million hearts to dare and do the bidding thereof?
It will be seen!-- The secret of gold Midas, which he with his long ears never could discover, was, That he had offended the Supreme Powers;--that he had parted company with the eternal inner Facts of this Universe, and followed the transient outer Appearances thereof; and so was arrived _here._ Properly it is the secret of all unhappy men and unhappy nations.

Had they known Nature's right truth, Nature's right truth would have made them free.

They have become enchanted; stagger spell-bound, reeling on the brink of huge peril, because they were not wise enough.

They have forgotten the right Inner True, and taken up with the Outer Sham-true.
They answer the Sphinx's question wrong.