Page:Popular Works of Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1889) Vol 2.djvu/256

 provinces under the dominion of Foreign States. Every Political Error carries with it the punishment of ultimate ruin unless the neighbouring States are equally unwise; and the State that would not meet destruction must avoid such Errors.

But should it be unwise and fall into Error? I ask, in return, where then is the Fatherland of the truly cultivated Christian European? In general it is Europe;—in particular it is that State in Europe which occupies the highest rank of Culture. The State which commits a fatal Error must indeed fall in course of time, and therefore cease to hold this rank. But although it falls and must fall,—nay, on this very account,—others arise, and among them one especially which now occupies the rank which the other held before. Let then mere Earthborn men, who recognise their Fatherland in the soil, the rivers, and the mountains, remain Citizens of the fallen State,—they retain what they desire, and what constitutes their happiness;—the Sun-like Spirit, irresistibly attracted, will wing its way wherever there is Light and Liberty. And in this cosmopolitan frame of mind we may look with perfect serenity on the actions and the fate of Nations, for ourselves and our successors, even to the end of Time.