Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-01-17
THE TRUE SPIRIT OF NATIONALIST

An eminent jurisconsult. professor in
the College of France. member of the
institute, in a recent con-
What Is a ference at Bordeaux I'M
der the title. "Rectitude
NdlAVu and Perversion of he Ma
tional Sense" said: What is n nation.
what should II be. what should it not
be-" In the development of this thesis
NJ Julian remarked: The idea OF
country is inseparable from the idea of
out the other
A nation! The word. derived from
the Latin "natio- natus." signifies those
born together: that is. born near each
other nd who live under the same
chiefs. The ancients employed re
word to designate members of the same
family. those who were gathered around
the same hearthstone or campfire as
in the case of the American indians
of the present day.
The word nation, said NJ. Julian,
recalls the family fraternity. the
cradle and the family fold. The idea OF
country completes the idea of the ma
ton by something still more noble To
the fact of birth it adds the sentiment
to the reality it adds the idea
The orator explained more clearly. as
a professor, that the nation is group
of beings who live and think in com
mon. The country is the same group
ment acting as superior over all the
determining in them sentiments. fears
and above all the sentiment OF love-
the love of country Country There
is in the word that of father and
paternity Country is thus as woman
who conceives us, as force that en-
genders. And in the same way. as q
father and mother invite our love ana
gratitude, so country invites senti-
ment which stirs the soul to patriotism
Patriotism is something akin TO the
love of the son for the mother, the
father for his children, the husband
for the family health. The nation ls
the whole of the groupment organized
for the comman life: the country Is the
nation become as woman ana peioEeu
as the purest of women.
The national sense is the manner in
which a nation manifests its life and
its relations with neighboring nations.
Patriotism is sentiment: national
sense is a nations attitude. A nation
that respects truth. which marches
frankly toward its object. which avoids
vain quarrels. which is patient ana
brave, is a nation which possesses a
national sense of perfect rectitude-
nation that lies. which is nervous.
destroys, mixes folly with vanity Is a
nation in which the national sense is
perverted
= ::
Nations are like men: they have
their hours of weakness. lack of in
jectiveness and in
Human Qualities conference. and when
their attitude is ca
VI NdtloAs. PRECIOUS and irreg-
ular they stagger and falter. and thus
carries itself badly.
France" said the orator. has not
arrived at such point. France car
ries herself proudly. periodically, ad-
mirably. France has arrived al a point
where her national sense has attained
perfection
The attitude of nation depends
largely upon the character of the coun-
try which is her domain-her dwelling
place. Each one of us carries some
thing of himself in his attitude and
the place in which we live. The sad
ness of the hut is reflected in the saw
age, the grace of a closed house. warm
and agreeable. manifests itself in the
nights IN the eyes OF Inc InOlHeT OIL q
family. Such a house, such d mistress.
The orator paints in his picture what
he aptly terms practical perspectives.
in which in France there is. always mixed
much poetry and much love, which eX-
plains the attraction which the land
and the people exercise over the
visitor. even he who catches but
glimpses in his rapid transit.
"Of poetry: no people in the world,
let me tell you. has ever written or
sung or painted more the infinite va
rieties of our national aspects, the vines
climbing the hillsides, the waves of
golden clusters, the shadows of the
pine woods traversed by rays of the
setting sun. There is on all the land
the prayer of the Angelus and the WIS.,
ion of the painter. We have ennobled
the warm production of the life of our
SOIL"
That which completes the stability
of the nation, that which contributes
to unite the French when as recently
they appeared hopelessly disunited to
those who understood them not. is the
Frenchman's love of monuments built
by his ancestors. "A nation is not
really upright and healthy except its
body is in accord with its monuments.
In that respect the national sense Is
entirely healthy"
ARE not merely masses of stone OF
products of art. There is in them the
virtue of Incompatible sentiment. They
awaken in the people profound
thoughts in the present, in the past
and these profound thoughts, gay or
sad, rejoin the stones OF these edifices
which resemble the generations that
have passed. There Is in the monu-
ment the soul of the present and the
soul of the past. Both commune to-
the same walls"
This is why France loves her monu-