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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



latter days spoken as it deserves of her treach- 

 erous, bloodthirsty, and tyrannous policy toward 

 every foreign or allied state or tribe which 

 seemed to so much as wish for the shadow of 

 independence — a policy unchanged during the 

 space of more than fifteen hundred years lying 

 between the execution of the Samnite Pontius 

 and the poisoning of Athanaric the Goth. The 

 story of Boadicea is familiar enough to us here 

 in England, thanks to Cowper's verses, but only 

 a few scholars realize how far from exceptional 

 it was, or how typical the spirit which found vent 

 in the famous words Delenda est Carthago was 

 of Roman patriotism, even in its best days and 

 among its noblest examples. And consequently, 

 when a school of teachers in the present day con- 

 trasts the passionate loyalty to the state of a 

 Roman of the republic witli the much weaker 

 sense of civil obligations current in the ordinary 

 European state of modern times, one is tempted 

 to doubt whether their scholarship be equal to 

 their enthusiasm, or whether they really know 

 what Roman patriotism practically meant to the 

 unfortunate Samnites, Latins, Gauls, Cantabrians, 

 Britons, Syrians, or Mauritanians, who happened 

 to come into collision with that side of it which re- 

 garded the extension of the imperium Romanum. 



So very many of the popular commonplaces 

 on patriotism are due to the influence of classical 

 literature, that careful investigation of the actual 

 working of that spirit in ancient times cannot fail 

 seriously to modify opinions which have no more 

 philosophical basis, especially as the travesty of 

 Greek and Roman virtue exhibited during the 

 mock classicism of the Terror cast doubts on the 

 genuineness of even the original article, which 

 doubts have survived to the present day. The 

 newest reproduction of the old Greek spirit which 

 later times have seen, is the history of the Italian 

 commonwealths, from the beginning of the Lom- 

 bard League till the final disappearance of mu- 

 nicipal liberty in the seventeenth century, and 

 the lessons that it reads to all who are not con- 

 tent to accept art instead of freedom, peace, mo- 

 rality, and other social bneefits, is fraught with 

 warnings as deep as Thebes or Sparta can yield. 



The Napoleonic war of aggression and con- 

 quest at the beginning of this century, and the 

 current Russian method of annexing fresh Asiatic 

 provinces to an already unwieldy empire, which 

 needs internal development in population and 

 resources far more than extension of territory, 

 serve in like manner to reproduce with sufficient 

 likeness for instruction the principles of Roman 

 advance. And here, too, French or Muscovite 



patriotism, seen close at hand, does not seem to 

 be so much for the advantage of mankind in gen- 

 eral, or of any portion of mankind belonging to 

 other races, as to compel admiration. Nor can 

 England be acquitted altogether in seeing how 

 patriotism, so called, has affected her dealings 

 with foreign or dependent states. The Hundred 

 Years' War with Fiance in mediaeval times ; the 

 manner of ruling Ireland and the American prov- 

 inces in a far later era ; the principles on which 

 the New-Zealanders and the Tasmanians have 

 been dealt with only the other day in the interest 

 of British colonists, will none of them bear ex- 

 amination, even if the wholly exceptional circum- 

 stances under which our Indian Empire has grown 

 up and is maintained take it out of the category 

 of blame. Patriotism, then, in one very widely- 

 accepted and popular view of it, which meets us 

 alike in the oldest monuments of Egyptian and 

 Assyrian conquerors in the hoary age of history, 

 and in the editorial articles of modern newspa- 

 pers, means, or at any rate involves, the deliber- 

 ate sacrifice of the rights of other nations and 

 countries to the glory of the one which claims to 

 be patriotic, and which denounces as criminal 

 rebellion, and chastises with fire and sword, that 

 other patriotism which objects to be suppressed. 

 That such a temper is entirely alien from the 

 Christian ideas of brotherhood and justice, is 

 doubtless true enough, but the reproach of hos- 

 tile critics ought rather to be that Christianity 

 has opposed such few and feeble barriers to con- 

 quest and aggressive wars, than that it has in 

 any degree weakened the patriotism which is 

 made their apology. If it could be shown that 

 Christianity had in fact materially diminished the 

 frequency, the area, and the fierceness of such 

 wars, it would very considerably increase its 

 claims on the allegiance of mankind. The con- 

 sideration of the manner in which Christian be- 

 lief of one kind or another has practically affected 

 that patriotism of defense just mentioned, must 

 be postponed to the inquiry into some other as- 

 pects of the sentiment. For it will be naturally 

 and reasonably alleged by those who bring the 

 charge of anti-patriotism against Christianity, 

 that they do not in the least mean the lust of 

 conquest and military glory, when they speak of 

 the virtue they desire to see more widely and in- 

 telligently practised. They will urge that inter- 

 nal development and progress, and the steady 

 achievement of wholesome reforms, constitute 

 the truest aim of patriotism, and that the patriot 

 whom they hold up for imitation is he who habit- 

 ually postpones his private interests to the wel- 



