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growth of national languages, poetry and literature, in opposition to the Latin, by the rise of nations and great minds among them. Dante, who dared to sing in "vulgar Italian," and pressed at once the seal of his genius upon the idiom of the unlettered, felt still obliged to ask pardon that he did not continue to compose in Latin, as he had begun, on so sacred a subject as his was. Finally the reformation. This event or process of civilisation, broke in many countries the uniting tie of the church. But a new common bond had arisen, and was rapidly increasing in strength, a general pursuit of knowledge, the tie of common European science, promoting in its turn intercommunication, both mental and, by the gradual fusion of the sciences and arts, also the physical intercommunion still more increased by the greater security which was an effect of the gradual nationalization of states and governments. Sciences naturally lead to general views; they have, in the main, a strongly cosmopolitic character; and, above all, we have seen that natural law, that science which treats of the rights of men, flowing from their nature, of justice, and not merely of positive or historical law, arose, and was and is cultivated with the moderns, while the christian religion must ever continue to exercise a more and more cosmopolitic character, the more purely it dwells among men. There was thus no possibility of a return

of patriotism in its ancient manifestation.

(1) Among others, Frederic Rühs, in his Manual of the History of the Middle Ages, Berlin, 1816, mentions the pilgrims as one of the means, by which mutual knowledge of one another among the nations of Europe was kept up, a slender means, yet in the absence of other and powerful ones in the darkest periods, not undeserving of attention. I quote from memory, but believe I am correct as to the above author. Whether or no, I consider it a fact that the innumerable pilgrimages, attended with many evil consequences, had also the mentioned good effect, of aiding to keep alive the sympathy among the Western Christian nations.

LXVI. It was felt and seen that ancient patriotism, heightened to national or state egotism, could no longer exist or be endured. "The barriers are broken, which severed states and nations in hostile egotism. One cosmopolitic bond unites at present all thinking minds and all the light of this century may now freely fall upon a new Galileo or Erasmus." (1) On the other hand it was observed how churlish, narrow, unjust or wicked that frequently is, which is claimed as patriotism, how directly opposed to truth, how narrow and blind in its selfishness.

I do not speak here of clanishness, which in its height and extreme perhaps in the Scotchman, and which by the great painter of his country's customs, has been represented, no doubt in strong, yet true colors, as rising at times beyond every thing, even the fear of final eternal doom; (2) nor of the petty and selfish feeling, the utmost extent of which is the town-limit,-a despicable interestedness; but I speak of that national egotism which is blind to truth and callous to justice beyond the nation's frontier, and which has been used for various and opposite evil ends, so much so, that men have not been wanting, who not only looked upon patriotism as beneath a true elevation of mind, but have actually declaimed against it. A late writer exclaims, "What misery has not already been caused by the love of country! How much has not this counterfeit virtue excelled all acknowledged vices in wild fury! Is selfishness of a country less a vice than that of an indivi

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dual? Does justice cease to be a virtue, so soon as we exercise it toward a foreign nation? It is a fine species of honor indeed, which prohibits us from declaring ourselves against our country, when justice no longer stands by its side!" (3) If patriotism is founded upon selfishness, and therefore cannot but lead to injustice, if it tends to blind us against truth, then, indeed it is one of our first and most sacred duties to pluck this rank weed out of our heart. Justice is above all; truth is the only legitimate sphere of the human mind and soul.

(1) Schiller, Inaugural address on: What is, and for what Purpose do we study, Universal History? first delivered in 1789. It is contained in his works.

(2) Walter Scott depicts this fearful feeling of attachment to the chief of the clan, family, &c., in Elspeth in the Antiquary, especially in the 12th chap. vol. ii, in colors which every foreigner would certainly consider beyond all possibility, did he not know that Scott never, probably, gave a wrong account of manners, national feelings, &c., except from want of knowledge, which in the above character cannot well have been the case.

(3) Louis Börne, a late German writer of much keenness and boldness, who was obliged to leave Germany, and take his abode at Paris, where he wrote many a bitter, many a witty, many a true and many a false thing. He belonged to a party, if such it can be called, in Germany, who wish to unite their endeavors with that which gives itself the singular name of la jeune France, thus raising, probably for the first time, age into a political party distinction. These parties seem to think that liberty has yet to be born, and that this new god will be brought forth by the union of the two great nations, to whom all this procreation of new liberty seems to have been assigned, the French and the Germans. The Anglican tree of liberty, which is an oak of centuries, is thus treated as if its mighty branches did not reach already over many countries, and over France and Germany too. But I must stop, lest I should make of a note an historical discussion. As to the above passage, to which this note is appended, I have for the present to say only that the author is mistaken as to the degree of fanaticism which has arisen out of patriotism. I know of no fanaticism which has so repeatedly affected mankind in so great a degree as religious fanaticism. His whole argument would thus turn more strongly still against religion were it correct in its conclusion.

LXVII. If patriotism consisted in national vanity, pride, conceitedness or self-sufficiency, which are its counterfeits, and one or the other of which we meet with in all nations from the Chinese to the Americans, it should be avoided by every wise man. But is it so; does there not exist a real virtue, compatible with purity of heart and general good will, and which has produced the best effects, which is deeply planted in the human breast and ought to be most carefully awakened and cultivated? (1)

Reflecting men have frequently fallen into two serious errors, of which the one is, indeed, a consequence of the other. In seeking for truth, and hence for distinctness and clearness, they have often conceived that only to be real, sound or true, which can be established by the calculating or analysing understanding, of which the plain end and object, the use, as well as the origin can be stated in so many words; forgetting at once, that as finite beings we must begin to reason from a finite beginning, and that the ultimate object must be beyond utility, because utility expresses only a serviceableness for an object, so that the ultimate object itself must needs be beyond utility. We may show how one thing serves for another; but we must needs end somewhere, that is we must arrive at a final object which is its own end. (2)

The second error is that men have been misled to consider their subject as totally separate and insolated,

forgetting that every where there are gradual and connecting transitions between those points where things show themselves in their fullest and most developed character-transitions which exist no more between the animal and the plant for instance, than between the arts, or institutions, or ideas, for instance, the Useful and the Ornamental, the Just and the Fair, or any thing that is mental, social or human. It is not only right but necessary, in order to obtain the clearest possible insight into any subject; first to consider it absolutely, that is in its essentials, by which it wholly differs from all other things, for which purpose we must examine it when at the highest degree of perfection peculiar to itself. If we omit this, we shall obtain but indistinct ideas, leading to a thousand erroneous conclusions. But having done this it is equally important to view the same subject in all its transitions, through which it is affiliated and joined, in the various directions, to other things. By doing this we can alone discover its position and bearing. As an instance I will take the courts of justice. They have to administer justice, they have to do with right. This is the characteristic of this institution. The opposite extreme to strict justice is self-denying love. Between the two, stands fairness, and we shall not obtain a perfect and partial view of courts of justice if we do not consider, among other things, the very subtle transition from the strictly just to that which is fair, and if we do not consider that, although the law is the rule by which the judge is bound to decide, this very law, being made by man and drawn up in human language, is not absolute like a mathematical formula, but in many cases must be interpreted in its application. These rules, the omission of either of which have

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