Humanity a Single Association 103 



side. England has made common cause with its 

 hereditary enemy France and its great autocratic 

 rival Empire of Russia, despite a century of antago- 

 nism with the one and the Crimean War to pre- 

 vent access to warm waters by the other, while the 

 Russians and Japanese, less than ten years after 

 their great conflict in Asia, have been allied in the 

 same war. In the face of these outstanding facts 

 the theory of the limits of association as marked 

 by natural antagonisms falls to the ground. 



If we examine the other grounds which are given 

 as marking the natural limits of association, 

 all turn out to be untenable. The theory that 

 geographical contiguity marks the limit of associa- 

 tion is refuted by the British Empire, with England 

 and New Zealand on opposite sides of the globe. 

 The theory that it is a common language which 

 marks the limits of association disappears, when 

 we examine the case of Switzerland, where the 

 French, German, and Italian speaking peoples 

 form a single association; and of Canada where 

 French and English speaking populations live 

 happily together in close association. The theory 

 of common racial derivation shatters on the fact of 

 North America, where people of all races and 

 births have no difficulty in forming a single 

 association almost continental in extent. 



We are forced to conclude then that the apparent 

 limits of human association are conventional to a 

 very great degree and that these limits are con- 

 stantly varying. But this fact ruins the philosophy 



