IQg

of  men,  through  many  generations  and  ages,  will  come  one
after  another  to  the  great  gift  of  social  being,  —  shall  be  born
and  live  and  die  in  a  vast  brotherhood  of  peace,  —  mental
and  moral  advancement,  and  reciprocation  of  succor  and  con-
solation, in  life  and  death,  —  what  attribute  of  grandeur,  what
element  of  supreme  and  transcendent  beneficence  and  benevo-
lence does  it  lack  ]  Is  it  not  obedience  to  the  will  of  God  ?
Does  not  He  decree  the  existence  of  separate  and  independent
nations  on  the  earth?  Does  not  the  structure  of  the  globe,
its  seas,  mountains,  deserts,  varieties  of  heat,  cold,  and  pro-
ductions ;  does  not  the  social  nature  of  man,  the  grand  edu-
cational necessities  and  intimations  of  his  being  ;  does  not  the
nature  of  liberty ;  does  not  his  universal  history,  from  the  birth
of  the  world  ;  do  not  all  things  reveal  it,  as  a  fundamental  and
original  law  of  the  race,  —  this  distribution  into  several
National  Life  ?  Is  it  not  as  profoundly  true  to-day  as  ever  1
''NiJiil  est  enim  illi  'principi  deo,  qui  omnem  hunc  mundum  re-
git., quod  quidem  in  terris  fiat^  acceptius  quam  concilia^  coetus-
que  homiimm  jure  sociati,  quce  civitates  appellantur.' ^

"  Is  not  the  national  family  as  clear  an  appointment  of  nature
and  nature's  God  as  the  family  of  the  hearth  X  Is  it  not  a
divine  ordinance,  even  as  love  of  parents  and  love  of  children  %
Nay,  is  it  not,  after  all,  the  only  practical  agency  through
which  the  most  expansive  love  of  Man  can  be  made  to  tell  on
Man  ?  And  if  so,  if  the  end  is  commanded,  that  is,  if  the
existence  of  the  independent  and  entire  state  is  commanded,
are  not  the  means  of  ensuing  that  end  commanded  also  I  And
if  so,  are  not  the  traits,  the  deeds,  the  care,  the  valor,  the  spirit
of  nationality,  the  obedience  to  the  collective  will  and  reason
as  expressed  through  the  prescribed  organic  form ;  are  not  all
these  sentiments,  and  all  that  policy,  '  the  great  scenery,  the
heroic  feelings,  the  blaze  of  ancient  virtue,  the  exalted  deaths,'
which  are  directed  specifically  and  primarily  to  the  creation
and  preservation  of  the  State,  —  are  they  not  highest  in  the
scale  of  things  commanded?  Must  not  'being,'  in  the  antithesis
of  Hooker,  go  before  even  'well  being'?  Away  then  with  this
spurious  and  morbid  morality  of  the  purple  robe,  which  erects
the  uses  of  some  particular,  moral,  or  social,  or  economical
reform,  that  if  not  effected  to-day,  may  be  to-morrow,  above
1  Cic. 