Page:The future of Africa.djvu/65

Rh elements of schooling, the plainest fabrics of constant wear, the enjoyment of the staples of daily life, the facts of commerce, and the observations of travel, however limited by individual observation; all, with clearest tone and manifest significance, bespeak the mutual dependence of the different families of men, as also the obligation of all states and commonwealths and empires to contribute to human well-being and the progress of nations. Among the diverse evidences and suggestions of this principle, there are some few most prominent. Let me endeavor to prove and illustrate the truth, the fixedness, and the universality of this obligation; for the sake of the benefit and the strength of its repetition, and of the internal refreshing which comes from the "line upon line," "the precept upon precept," and which ever proceeds from the iteration of all prime truths, all great and fundamental ideas, all large and noble principles. I commence this argument, for which I feel and know myself unfitted, with the remark that, The relations which nations hear to the whole family of man in the aggregate, attest this obligation, and press this duty. For there is a relation between individual, distinctive, nationalities, and the entire race. There is a significant meaning in that new word just introduced into our language, that is, the "solidarity of nations:" for a nation is a collection of men; not of angels, not of demi-gods, not of indescribable celestials; but of —men of flesh, and blood, and bone, and muscle; men "of the earth, earthy;" men of the same make,