NA TIONAL GROWTH AND NA TIONA L CHAR A CTER 195 



growth of knowledge; the third marks clearly the birth of na- 

 tions, chiefly through the most beneficent belief the world has 

 known ; the fourth marks the passage of humanity into its best 

 estate, in which individual strength of body and brain is the 

 seal of nobility. 



After half-imaginary glimmering, as in the " Republic " of 

 Plato, the morning star of enlightenment rose first on the Alps 

 of Switzerland. The early Swiss were a hardy stock, sifted by 

 their own strength from the mid-European assemblage of tribes 

 and nascent nations ; their vigor was increased by adventurous 

 life, while they learned the lesson of mutual helpfulness in cease- 

 less strife against rocks and ice; and thus they acquired, earlier 

 than other strains of the European stock, that deep respect for 

 self and regard for neighbor which bears fruit in altruistic gov- 

 ernment. The strong Swiss character is displayed in many 

 ways; they are types at once of individual independence and of 

 unselfish devotion ; though clannish as Scotsmen, they have 

 sown the seeds of science and other learning in every cultured 

 land ; they love their hard fatherland beyond all other men save 

 the Arab and Bedou and Papago adorers of their native deserts; 

 and it is not surprising that their combined individuality and 

 solidarity forced the fruit of humanity even before the bud burst 

 into flower in softer lands. Such was the character of the peo- 

 ple that, when the yoke of the oppressor galled, a liberator stood 

 read} r to cast it off. Inspired by relief from her fetters, Switzer- 

 land sprang into national being; she stands today a distinct 

 and peculiar!}' significant type of nationhood. 



The sun of enlightenment tinged a broad horizon with the 

 Declaration of American Independence, and rose in its fullness 

 when the colonies were united as states. The time was fully 

 come, for the intellectual quickening would not be stilled. Amer- 

 ica had her idolized Washington, as Switzerland her idealized 

 Tell, and, through the singular capacity of the First President 

 and his fellows, the transition from one culture plane to another 

 was made at once and for all time with a facility and completeness 

 which are a constant marvel to the student of the commonly 

 devious and dilatory ways of human progress. 



The examples of Switzerland and America have been widely 

 followed. The soil of the western hemisphere has proved pecu- 

 liarly fertile for free institutions; our neighboring republic of 

 Mexico is a brilliant instance; a score of Central American and 



