Belgium contains at least three distinct languages, and is probably the case most difficult to justify on a priori grounds; but this only shows how dangerous in these matters such considerations are. The people of Belgium are content to be united, and they are resolved not to accept fusion with any of their neighbours. Each of the other countries mentioned has a distinctive language, current almost universally in its territories; and there can be little doubt that at the present time community of languages is the main bond and sanction of political unity. The recent spread of representative institutions has very greatly accentuated its importance. It is mainly the factor of language which prevents the political arrangements of Europe from seeming arbitrary and fortuitous.

Excluding the British Isles and Scandinavia, the test of language gives us in Western Europe three main facts, viz., Spain, France and Germany. Of these there are lesser variants, two of which, Holland and Portugal, have succeeded in obtaining an independent status. Small pockets of alien speech are of course found here and there, as in Brittany and in the Basque districts of the Pyrenees, and these are simply incorporated in whatever unit is geographically most convenient. Finally, certain frontier districts remain, of mixed language and therefore of doubtful allegiance. These sometimes, like Belgium, possess sufficient

importance and resolution to acquire and maintain independence; sometimes, like Slesvig-Holstein and Alsace-Lorraine, they are bones of contention between the neighbouring powers. In any case, they lead a troubled life.

The further east one travels in Europe the more difficult it becomes to reduce the problem to its elements in this way. The small peninsulas of Italy and Greece are two definite facts; but in both cases the land frontier is hard to define, and both peoples have crossed the narrow seas to the east and claim the coast-line of districts inhabited by men of alien race and speech, And where else in eastern Europe is a land frontier that is beyond dispute? The difficulty, accentuated by the disappearance of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the collapse of Russia, and embittered by centuries of warfare and misgovernment, if to find the main facts which have a right to govern the solution. The division of Europe into two hostile groups during the recent war, and the fact that the settlement is now being dictated by one of those groups, complicate the present position still further, and make it unlikely that any settlement arrived at now will be more than a temporary makeshift. The main political facts of the past in this region were Russia, Austria and Turkey. Of these the two last practically exist no longer; and the first, though it cannot disappear in the same sense, is for the moment

in chaos. Out of Russia, we have reason to believe, will come in time a nation. For the rest, one thing seems quite certain; and if true, it is of cardinal importance for our enquiry. It is impossible to suppose that any ingenuity in defining frontiers will avail to create in the enormous area that remains nations of the western European type. Nothing less than a hundred years of strong and settled government could do that. The nations of the West have each been forged slowly and painfully into a unity by long historical processes in which forcible unification has played an all-important part. That has not been the fate of our Eastern neighbours, and it is too late in the day to set such forces at work now. The independent nation-state was a possible type for the new Italy, even with some modification for modern Germany; but if that is the only idea available for the reconstruction of Poland, Czecho-Slovakia, Jugo-Slavia, and the other Balkan States, it will lead straight to disaster. A new form of organisation is wanted, which will at once satisfy the particularism of the various racial and linguistic groups and make possible their close political and economic co-operation. Homogeneous social units of adequate size and satisfactory geographical disposition simply do not exist.

Before ending this rough survey of the facts, we ought to pay a moment's attention to the case of Switzerland. The mixture of races and the variety of language

is greater than in Belgium; and the internal communications are very bad, while in Belgium they are very good. Still there is an analogy between the two countries in that both formed buffer-states between great Powers, with each of which they had some affinity. The surprising fact is that, though Switzerland might appear a priori to be a purely artificial unity, without any other bond that its bare and snow-capped mountains, its people have on the whole led as happy a life, and solved their own problems as successfully, as any political group in Europe. It may be doubted whether one is fully justified in calling the Swiss a nation; but it cannot be doubted that this country of lakes and mountains has made its own distinctive contribution to the civilisation of Europe. And this fact is bound to give pause to the fanatical advocate of nationalism.

§ 9. THE NATION AS THEORY: MAZZINI'S CREED We have next to consider the theory of the Nation, the idea which Nationalism asks us to realise.

Mazzini must be reckoned among the very few thinkers who have believed quite literally the truth of the saying that the voice of the people is the voice of God. It was the central article of his creed; and if to it is added a profound conviction of the reality of progress and of the supreme value of association the rest follows

naturally. Here are some of his sayings. Humanity is" a being whose life is continuous," "a man that lives and learns for ever," "the Word, living in God." We discover the law of God," article by article, line by line, according to the accumulated experience of the generations that have preceded us, and according to the extension and increased intensity of association among races, peoples and individuals." "No man, no people, and no age may pretend to have discovered the whole of the law." "Morality is progressive." Hence "I believe in Humanity, sole interpreter of the Law of God on earth." It is through association only that the Law is revealed and progress made possible. Thus divine inspiration is to be found, not in the solitary meditations of supremely gifted individuals, but in the collective manifestations of humanity. Association is the sacred and saving fact.

Mazzini recognised the value of many kinds of association. He was dissatisfied, for instance, with the capitalist organisation of industry, and was strongly attracted by the idea, active in the France of his time, that industry might be transformed into free and selfgoverning associations of producers. But the two essential forms of association to him were the family and the nation, and these were conceived symmetrically, the family being intended to do for the nation what the nation was intended to do for humanity. "Inspired