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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



international trade has been the ability 

 of the English manufacturers to main- 

 tain a standard that is almost unvarying. 

 The English products which bear the 

 great names have been the same for gen- 

 erations, and the proprietors have never 

 yielded to the temptation to debase the 

 product to increase the profit. They 

 have sought to increase profit by the ex- 

 tension of operations and the increased 

 volume of sales. A cake of Pear's soap, 

 a jar of Cross & Blackwell's pickles, a 

 bottle of Bass's ale, are the commonest 

 examples of this honesty. Its value in 

 international trade has proved itself again 

 and again. Merchants in the far-ofif 

 quarters of the world know exactly what 

 they are ordering and exactly what it will 

 be like when they receive it, and they are 

 never disappointed. 



The Germans have claimed that Eng- 

 lish goods are not as well adapted as their 

 own to the needs of tropical countries, 

 but it has been often shown that when 

 people buy from a distance they are more 

 likely to buy something they can rely on 

 than some unfamiliar article which they 

 might prefer if they had it. German 

 agents, with the goods on hand for de- 

 livery, have successfully sold them, but 

 the large orders of firms that do not deal 

 with agents still go to England. 



the; brain and heart o]p the nation 



After all is said — and we have listed 

 our strategic factors and our economic 

 influences, our political causes, our ad- 

 ministrative forces — we come at last to 

 the conclusion that the factors of great- 

 est potency explaining national power 

 and success are spiritual and not phys- 

 ical. The brain and heart of the nation 

 are all-important, and upon their vitality 

 nations depend far more than they do 

 upon physical size. 



Multitudes of men, myriads of acres, 

 thousands of cattle, bursting granaries. 



and humming factories cannot take the 

 place of that spiritual accord which binds, 

 together with irresistible strength a great 

 people whose ancestors have fought, suf- 

 fered, and hoped side by side for so 

 many centuries that cooperation between 

 them is not merely permissive, or possi- 

 ble, or attainable by the intelligent direc- 

 tion of their superiors, but inevitable. 



Until the national consciousness reaches 

 this degree where it is inescapable, where 

 every member of the community is a part 

 of its gristle and bone, not because some 

 one has convinced him that he ought to 

 be, not because intelligent leaders have 

 taught him how to act as if it were so, 

 but simply and solely because it is so, the 

 consciousness is still lacking which moves 

 and directs the inarticulate convictions 

 of the vast majority, who are neither 

 well educated nor highly intelligent, and 

 who are efifectively reached only by in- 

 fluences racial and national in their scope 

 and duration. 



In the long run, the collective effort of 

 a nation is greater and more effective 

 than the effort of an equal number of 

 individuals, however carefully directed. 

 In the long run, only those nations act 

 collectively who act involuntarily and 

 need a minimum of direction. 



While no one who is a truly candid 

 student will deny that England has still 

 much to attain in political and social con- 

 sciousness and a long road to travel be- 

 fore the national consciousness will be- 

 come instinctive upon aught but the 

 simplest subjects, he will still be com- 

 pelled to admit that England has pro- 

 gressed further in spiritual national con- 

 sciousness than any other community in 

 the world simply because the early at- 

 tainment of territorial and racial unity 

 enabled the ancestors of the present Eng- 

 lishmen to begin living together long, 

 long before the final elements of other 

 nations had been assembled. 



