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had adopted. Were we to carry the principle from which he acted to its legitimate and logical conclusion, its absurdity would be apparent. If, now, instead of an area of 70,000 miles, one of 35,000 only were to disengage itself, he would consider himself morally bound to partake of its secession; and if his native county afterwards desired to withdraw itself from the diminished area, he would still conceive it to be his duty to offer her his services. Such an idea of patriotism would inevitably lead to political annihilation.

Of the difficulty of discovering what is your country, an example is to be found at the period of the French Revolution. Chateaubriand, returning from his American travels, found France distracted. The King had been sacrificed, and "the patriots" were in possession of supreme power. Princes, nobles, and ecclesiastics had been forced to fly. Chateaubriand could not remain inactive; he hastened to consult Malesherbes. Old France, to whom he owed fealty, and with whom were his affections, was beyond the Rhine. Should he join his friends and relatives who had congregated at Coblentz ? This was the question. After much consultation

they decided it in the negative, assigning as their reason that to act otherwise would be to act unpatriotically! If one's country consists of rocks and

rivers only, they would have been undoubtedly right. But if, as we believe, a man's country is made up of his associations, of his personal liberty, and of the constitution under which he was born and had lived, Chateaubriand was wrong in considering those who retained possession of the soil and of the temporary direction of affairs as the representatives of his native land. His France was no longer in her accustomed place. He carried his country in his knapsack.

At one time these old-fashioned notions of patriotism, the notions which drill-sergeants and so-called patriotic songs have made familiar, were of service. The consciousness of belonging to a nation that had achieved great things cast a sort of reflected greatness upon each citizen, and may have had the effect of inciting him to emulate his predecessors. But divisions of mountains and rivers and frontier garrisons are no longer so effective as formerly, and will in time be altogether dispensed with. Improved means of intercommunication, a more diffused knowledge of foreign languages, and more extensive business transactions with men of other lands, are gradually preparing the way for the total suppression of nationalities. We shall feel less regret at the ultimate disappearance of patriotic feelings when we are able to bring ourselves to consider they are merely the effect of cultivated prejudices; that they

TENDENCY OF CIVILIZATION.

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are customary, not rational; and that in desiring their extinction we are in strict accord with the spirit of modern civilization.

This spirit aims at homogeneity and centralization, through the absorption of the weaker by the more powerful. It is manifested in social life by the increasing number of joint-stock companies, trade unions, associations, and by the organization of opinion and of labour. It is equally apparent in politics. On the other side of the Atlantic it developes itself with greater rapidity than on this. The failure to effect a disruption of the States in union was inherent in the attempt, and there seems to be no well-grounded fear that the effort now being made to confederate those provinces that possess independent governments will be unsuccessful. In Europe, which in ancient. times was united under one government by the Romans, and more than once in the middle ages partially united by intermarriage of sovereigns, the tendency would seem at the present moment to have been checked, except so far as regards Italy. Greece was made independent of Turkey; Belgium separated, to its great loss, from Holland; and under the pretext of furnishing them with independence, Austria and Prussia have wrested Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. Germany itself still remains a comical triacontarchy, split up into as many states

as there are days in the month; but it is very probable her late action will hereafter have the effect of diminishing the number of her petty rulers in a way they little expect.

We believe, however, this halt to be only temporary. The smaller states, which dread the loss of their nationalities, should therefore learn in time to look with complacency upon what is inevitable, and to see good in the coming evil. Scotland, Ireland, and Wales once patriotically resisted union with England. They have long since seen, however, that the loss of independent government is amply compensated by the greater benefit they derive from participating in the enlarged and more vigorous action of a more powerful state. Local self-government is less important to a people than good government—all required is, that the worse should give way to the better. What difference does it make to a people whether the centre of ministerial action is here, a mile off, or in St. Petersburg, 2,000 leagues away, if only that action is wholesome and efficacious? For Russia, however, to annex England would be a retrograde step, and should be resisted. But who will say that it would not be a benefit for Turkey to be placed under the control of one of the great European powers, or that the Mexicans would not be more prosperous if their country were formally

IMPORTANCE OF THE LITERARY MAN. 261

annexed to the United States, or quietly submitted to the protection of France?

The aim of Christianity is identical with the tendency of civilization. Its endeavour has been to make the world one fold under one Shepherd; the convert to Christianity was to become completely denationalised. Some are of opinion that in this respect it has failed to accomplish its mission, just as Rome failed permanently to effect it by conquest. Philosophy, we are told, has now set itself the task of directing and regulating the feeling from which it is to flow, and it remains to be seen how swift and complete will be its preparation for "the Parliament "of Man, the Federation of the World."

One of the most important agents at the present day in effecting the coming change being necessarily the man of letters, it becomes a matter of universal interest how he views the situation. What and where is the goal to which he would direct and hasten society, and what and where are the means he would employ for reaching it, are, therefore, questions of paramount importance. Of those who, for several years past, have offered themselves as leaders of the new thought, Mr. Mazzini, being a man of action and of letters, is at once one of the most eminent, and most influential; and his utterances are consequently entitled to a higher degree of consider