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ESSAYS ON LIBERTY

In these things, therefore, the several nations \vill differ from each other; for they themselves have produced them, and they do not owe them to the State \vhich rules them all. This diversity in the same State is a firm barrier against the intrusion of the government beyond the political sphere \vhich is common to all into the social department which escapes legislation and is ruled by spontaneous la\vs. This sort of interference is character- istic of an absolute government, and is sure to provoke a reaction, and finally a remedy. That intolerance of social freedom which is natural to absolutism is sure to find a corrective in the national diversities, which no other force could so efficiently provide. The co-existence of several nations under the same State is a test, as well as the best security of its freedom. I t is also one of the chief instrulnents of civilisation; and, as such, it is in the natural and providential order, and indicates a state of greater advancement than the national unity which is the ideal of modern liberalism. The combination of different nations in one State is as necessary a condition of civilised life as the combina- tion of men in society. Inferior races are raised by living in political union with races intellectually superior. Exhausted and decaying nations are revived by the contact of a younger vitality. Nations in which the elements of organisation and the capacity for government have been lost, either through the demoralising influence of despotism, or the disintegrating action of democracy, are restored and educated anew under the discipline of a stronger and less corrupted race. This fertilising and regenerating process can only be obtained by living under one government. It is in the cauldron of the State that the fusion takes place by which the vigour, the knowledge, and the capacity of one portion of mankind may be com- municated to another. Where political and national bound- aries coincide, society ceases to advance, and nations re- lapse into a condition corresponding to that of men who renounce intercourse \vith their fellow-men. The difference between the two unites mankind not only by the benefits