158 THE LIVING WORLD. 



bor, the nations become larger, and the increase in 

 the size of the nations acts against the increase in 

 their diversity. As fast as the members of a nation 

 become cemented together, so fast do they begin to 

 assume common characters. The American nation 

 is absorbing into itself a great variety of people, 

 perhaps faster than it can assimilate them. But as 

 fast as they are absorbed, just so fast does the char- 

 acter of the nation change. The American nation 

 no longer possesses the character of the men who 

 struggled for independence a century ago. The 

 history of civilization has been always marked by 

 the absorption of the small races into the larger 

 ones. It is only enmity and a narrow patriotic love 

 that prevents all of the smaller nations of Europe 

 from becoming parts of the larger ones. Thus it is 

 that to-day the formation of new races has been 

 checked, at least among the higher classes of man- 

 kind. The nations are growing larger, their hos- 

 tilities are becoming lessened, intercourse of com- 

 merce and friendship between them is increasing, 

 and with all this a tendency toward unification and 

 concentration is plainly seen. Not divergence but 

 convergence of type is the history of to-day. 



It is therefore plain that the ethical nature of man 

 is producing a new phase in the development of the 

 world. It is checking the tendency to formation of 

 new types, and is tending to unite into one the 

 members of the race. To-day intelligence is uniting 

 all men into closer and closer relations of commerce 

 and education. In the future we can see it destroy- 

 ing all desire of conflict and victory ; we can see it 



