The birth-day of a nation is not merely a figurative expression. Nations are _born_ as well as men. The very etymology of the word implies as much. Social compacts may be _declarative of their independence_, or definitive of their existence, but do not create them. In truth, all such compacts and conventions do in themselves imply a previous natural growth or organization lying necessarily still farther back, as the ground of any legitimacy they may possess. There can be no _con-vening_ unless there is something to determine, _a priori_, who shall _come together_, and how they shall come together--as _representatives_ of what _principals_--as _parts_ of what ascertained _whole_--with what powers, on what terms, and for what ends. There can no more be an artificial nation than an artificial language. Aside from other influences, all attempts of the kind must be as abortive in politics as they have ever been in philology. Nations are not manufactured, either to order or otherwise, but born--born of other nations, and nurtured in those peculiar arrangements of God's providence which are expressly adapted to such a result. The analogy between them and individuals may be traced to almost any extent. They have, in general, some one event in which there may be discovered the conceptive principle, or _principium_, of their national life. They have their embryo or formative period. They have their _birth_, or the time of their complete separation from the maternal nationality to which they were most nearly and dependently united. They have their struggling infancy--their youth--their growth--_their heroic period_--their iron age of hardship and utility--their manhood--their silver age of luxury and refinement--their golden age of art and science and literature--their acme--their decline--their decay--their final extinction, or else their dissolution into those fragmentary organisms from which spring up again the elements or seeds of future nationalities.