THE MORAL ASPECT OF 



right and the will, it would rule the world. All that other 

 States are and possess are simply things which, so far, it has 

 not been able to make its own. 



Now, as all States have ideally the same obligations to 

 their citizens, and therefore the same unlimited rights, they 

 are natural rivals ; and the normal relation between them 

 is that of mechanical strain. The expansion of the domain 

 or the power of any one of them is a menace to its 

 neighbours. Any increase of its industrial or commercial 

 efficiency is secured at their expense. For it seems quite 

 evident that, the greater the mass of goods which it is able 

 to produce, the more restricted is the sphere of the 

 industrial activity of the others ; and the more it floods 

 their markets with these goods, the more confined are their 

 own markets and the less the demand for their labour. 



And just as the obligations of a State to its own inhabi- 

 tants are primary, so the duties of the citizen to his country 

 must override all others. His sentiments may be cosmo- 

 politan, but his practice must be patriotic. For as States 

 are natural rivals, seeing that each seeks to be self-sufficient, 

 he cannot do anything to serve other States except, directly 

 or indirectly, at the expense of his own. In so far, for 

 instance, as by his commercial or industrial enterprise he 

 employs the workmen of a foreign State or otherwise con- 

 tributes to its prosperity he relatively weakens his own. 

 He ought to bewail its success and rejoice in its failure. 

 If his own country is losing its relative pre-eminence, 

 whether through greater prosperity abroad or through less 

 prosperity at home, he must regard it as an evil, and, like 

 a true patriot, look for the best methods of averting it. 

 What other States do is work taken out of our hands ; the 

 markets they supply are shut against ourselves. Economi- 



