35 
THE INFLUENCE OF SMALL 
COMMUNITIES. 
By Mr. ARTHUR LEWIS, B.A., F.R.G.S. 
March hth, 1907. 
“ What should they know of England 
Who only England know.” 
The above lines form an appropriate apology for the 
introduction of this topic, which may not be alluring to 
Chauvinists and subjects of the greatest Empire in the history 
of the world. Yet the whole interest of history depends 
upon the eternal likeness of human nature to itself, and on 
the similarities or analogies, which we in consequence per- 
petually discover, between that which has been and that 
which is. Were it not so, all the narratives of the past would 
be an enigma to our understandings, nor would the experience 
of the ancient world afford any instruction or warning to 
him who is interpreting the present or anticipating futurity. 
A knowledge of the history of some foreign nation, ancient 
or modern, is a postulate of the adequate conception of our 
own history, just as the knowledge of a second religious 
system clarifies much that is esoteric in our system. A dash 
of cosmopolitanism in history-study is the best cure for 
insularity and the corroding influences of Chauvinism. 
In these days of panegyrics on great Empires, and dithy- 
rambic rhodomontade of the Empire “ on which the sun 
never sets,” it may be a welcome relief to read a brief for 
the little states, the little communities, the despised and 
rejected. There is a great danger, in an age of Imperial 
aggrandizement and military and commercial spread-eagleism 
of forgetting our indebtedness to the small communities. 
In this forgetfulness, under various influences, fascinated by 
other ideals, and following as we might say wandering fires, — 
a will-o’-the-wisp, — our English life, sometimes, or a large 
portion of it, has been drifting into ways that are perilous 
to the higher traditions and aspirations of a free people. 
