Page:The New Europe (The Slav standpoint), 1918.pdf/25

 on. There arises national non-Latin literature in the fields of philosophy and science, as well as in belles lettres; literature becomes a cultural power. In the political sphere democracy is strengthened, and with it the influence of the people and their language becomes supreme in parliament and in administration; Latin and French lose their political privileges.

Philosophy of the 18th century, like contemporary philosophy, proclaims the humanitarian principle and ideal; the French Revolution proclaims the rights of man; Herder, “the high priest of pure humanity,” declares nations to be the natural organs of humanity, rejecting at the same time states as the artificial organs. Europe becomes more and more politically organised in accordance with the principles of nationality.

. Nationality manifests itself practically through language, of course the spoken language (mother tongue); statistics of nations are given on the basis of languages; grammarians investigate how far dialects differ from actual languages. There is, for instance, a possible controversy whether German and French, or Russian and German are independent and different languages; but there is also a controversy as to whether the Ukrainian is an independent language and therefore the Ukrainians a separate nation, etc.

The importance of language as the determining factor of nationality is easily understood: the tongue serves as the immediate expression of the feelings and thoughts of men. Le Style c’est l’homme is true here also. And language has a tremendous social significance—makes possible the contact of man. Nationality, national spirit, manifests itself therefore in literature; that fact is acknowledged generally as to belles lettres—great poets are looked upon as the most expressive representatives of their nations. But even science and philosophy have their national character—even mathematics, an abstract science, differs in the different nations; science and philosophy differ both in contents (what interests the different nations) and by method. Plastic arts are equally acknowledged to be an expression of nationality; but the same may also be said of religion, customs and laws of labour (agriculture and industry), all of which vary according to each nation; there is a variety in cooking, housing, etc., in statecraft and in politics. Thus the Orthodox religion is looked upon as distinctly Slav, Catholic as Latin, Protestant as German; distinctions are made between Roman, German and Slav laws; differences are pointed out between the Prussian state and the English or Russian, etc. All these problems demand careful examination. We must not accept hasty generalisations; for instance, the Western Slavs are Catholics, and still the Czechs carried out the first reformation—in this brief outline one can merely call attention to the rich contents of scientific philosophy of nationality.

The principle of nationality is a distinctive and very powerful feeling; it is the love for the mother tongue and for the group of men speaking the same or very nearly related language, and for the soil on which this group lives, and for the manner how it lives. But this love is not only the feeling arising out of the natural habitual life, but it is also an idea of conscious love; nations have their own cultural and political program growing out of a common history and in its turn directing this history; it is modern patriotism in this wide and complicated sense, different from the old patriotism of loyalty to the dynasty and ruling classes. There is a real principle of nationality, the ideal of nations and not merely national feeling or instinct.

The question of how various nations have arisen and developed, how nations become individualised, is rather controversial. People generally imagine that certain parts of mankind, nations, have special, common, physical and mental qualities; the conception is prevalent that mankind is divided into races (the European, Mongolian, etc.) and races into nations, these again into tribes and still smaller subdivisions. At first, science decided upon a small number of races (five); but as scientific analysis progressed, anthropologists and ethnographers declared the number of races to be much greater. 2em