The spirit of nationality represents the highest development of the idea of self-preservation. Its growth can be traced from the individual to the family, thence to the tribe and city, until the formation of the political state is obtained. In the last stages of this process, nationality attains perfection through homogeneity of its component individuals. The men who compose a single nation must think together. Their ideals and aims must be one and they must be conscious of a common destiny. Language, as the currency of thought, naturally becomes the unifier. To a notable degree areas of homogeneous language in Europe have been spared the havoc of battle or siege. On the other hand, linguistic borderlands have always been scenes of armed struggle and destruction. Community of origin is not essential among members of the same nation. The bond of language and identity of historical destiny suffice for the creation of nationality. An English-speaking immigrant on United States soil, imbued with the spirit of the principles on which the country’s independence is founded, finds himself in a state of response to the idea of American nationality. And yet, the idea of nationality is no mere integration of historical associations. It stands enthroned in the land. The poet touches his compatriot’s heart by recalling the murmur of the forest or by a picture of the winding shore. Through the charm of living green enshrined in circling hills, at times through an appreciation of the solemn peak rising heavenward, man found love of homeland. A strong tie between humanity and the land was created by these relations. Nationality cannot depend on language alone, for it is founded on geographical unity. The past thousand years of European history contain sufficient proof of the fact. The three southern peninsulas Spain, Italy and Greece are homelands of an equal number of nations. A single language is current in each. To the north a similar differentiation of nations adapts itself to regional divisions. Plains, mountains and seas have limited European nationalities to definite number and extension. Thus every people acquires a peculiar genius which expresses itself in characteristic fashion and cannot be made to assume a guise alien to its own spirit. It absorbs the idealism of its captors and molds it into its own form. The poet’s intuition rarely echoed deeper truth than in the oft-quoted passage which immortalized the spirit of Hellas: Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes Intulit agresti Latio.