proof positive that we regard the nationality of a man as a transient
business. Nationality is local, spirituality universal. Nationality is a
form, a mould, a means; spirituality is the essence, the force, the
object. The problems of nationality are wrapped up in the problems of
personality. A personality is an amalgam of likes and dislikes, of habit
and prejudice, the product of circumstances and a will. There is such a
thing as multiple personality, and there is also multiple nationality.
But the simple measure of nationality is severely natural and elemental.
It is rooted in the need of understanding and being understood. It
begins with love of self (we do love ourselves, in spite of all
assurances to the contrary), family, and tribe. In a world of diversity
and uncertainty it envelops us with a comforting assurance that there
are creatures who feel and think as we do. It endows us with a
group-soul, without which we, like ants and bees, cannot face life. The
sense of nationality is but an enlarged sense of personality.

It is a realization of unity which comprises many lesser units. Our
household, our village, our country, our constituency, are all
independent unities which we deliberately (though not always
successfully) press into the service of the greater unity. The lesser
unities always run the danger of being superseded by the greater
unities. The conditions of soil and climate in a hamlet produce a crop
of personalities similar in content and range, a type which we may
distinguish by the shape of the nose or the trend of the remarks. Ten
neighbouring little hamlets may have their little ways of distinction
which separate one from the other, and yet one day--to their
dismay--discover that they have greater generalities in common. Once the
discovery is made, prudence and common sense demand co-operation. The
great nations are built up on the discovery. Italy, Germany, and Great
Britain have taken it to heart after endless trials of the smaller
unities. America had one severe trial, and then settled down to
circumvent and undo the curse of Babel. The sense of separateness, once
so precious to Florence, Genoa, and Pisa, could not resist the larger
conception of Italy.

There is no reason, historical or logical, why this expansion of the
consciousness of unity should not proceed until there is nothing further
to include. The recognition of an all-human brotherhood is followed by
the realization of an all-animal