1156 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



organization, each associated with a 

 great nation, are now visible, where for- 

 merly there were many. 



That any one of these now dominant 

 types will ultimately so prevail against 

 the others as to absorb them cannot be 

 predicted, for at least four or five of the 

 types are immensely strong. Yet, speak- 

 ing broadly, uniformity tends to increase, 

 variety to disappear. Local patriotism, 

 with all that diversity and play of indi- 

 viduality which local patriotism has 

 evolved, withers silently away. The pro- 

 cess is in civilized Europe nearly com- 

 plete ; and the Mediterranean East is al- 

 most the only part of the world in which 

 there are left nationalities with the ca- 

 pacity for developing into independent 

 nations that may create new types of 

 character and new forms of literary and 

 artistic life. 



Bulgarians, Serbs, Greeks, Armeni- 

 ans—it might seem fanciful to add Al- 

 banians and Kurds, yet each of these two 

 small races has a strong individuality 

 and a capacity for greater things than it 

 has hitherto achieved — have in them the 

 makings of nations which might, in a 

 still distant future, hold a worthy place 

 in the commonwealth of peoples. If I 

 were to argue that the small States have 

 in the past done- more for the world in 

 the way of intellectual progress than the 

 gigantic States of today are doing, I 

 might be involved in a controversy as to 

 the differences between past and present 

 conditions, and might be told that many 

 of the small States of today, such as 

 most of the republics of Spanish Amer- 

 ica, make no contribution to the common 

 stock. But without insisting upon such 

 an argument, one may venture to say 

 that humanity has more to expect from 

 the development of new civilized nations 



out of ancient yet still vigorous races 

 than from the submersion of these races 

 under a flood of Russianizing or Ger- 

 manizing influences emanating from any 

 one of the three great empires. 



The principle of nationalities finds less 

 support and sympathy nowadays, even 

 in countries which, like Germany, have 

 profited by its application, than it did in 

 the past ; but those who sympathize with 

 the successful efforts of Italy and Hun- 

 gary, and the unsuccessful efforts of 

 Poland, not to mention more recent in- 

 stances, may well extend their sympa- 

 thies to those nationalities in the East, 

 which, after so long a night, see a glim- 

 mer of dawn rising before them. 



Failings may indeed be discerned in 

 the men who belong to these nationali- 

 ties, failings which are the natural result 

 of the conditions under which they have 

 had for centuries to live. But the tenac- 

 ity with which the Macedonian Chris- 

 tians have clung to their faith when they 

 had so much to gain by renouncing it, 

 the courage which the Armenian Chris- 

 tians showed when thousands of them 

 chose in 1895 to die rather than abjure 

 their Saviour, prove the strength of fibre 

 that is left in these ancient races. 



He who, looking above and beyond the 

 dust of current politics, will try to fix 

 his eyes, as Mr. Gladstone did, upon the 

 heights of a more distant landscape, will 

 find reason to think that the develop- 

 ment of these nationalities has in it more 

 promise for the future than the exten- 

 sion of the sway of one or two huge 

 military empires, and will believe that to 

 encourage and help them to grow into 

 nations is an aim to which such great 

 and enlightened peoples as those of Eng- 

 land, France, and Italy may fitly direct 

 their efforts. 



