Part 21 (1/2)

VI. Model III

Theodor Mommsen's ”Law of National Expansion,” in view of the present war, is interesting. In his _History of Rome_, which was published in 1857, he says in substance that a young nation which has both vigor and culture is sure to absorb older nations whose vigor is waning and younger nations whose civilization is undeveloped, just as an educated young man is sure to supplant an old man in his dotage and to get the better of a muscular ignoramus. That nations, as well as individuals, should do this is, in Mommsen's opinion, not only inevitable but right.

In ancient times the Romans were the only people in whom were combined a superior political organization and a superior civilization. The result was that they subdued the Greek states of the East, which were ripe for destruction, and dispossessed the people of lower grades of culture in the West. The union of Italy was accomplished through the overthrow of the Samnite and Etruscan civilizations. The Roman Empire was built upon the ruins of countless secondary nationalities which had long before been marked out for destruction by the levelling hand of civilization. When Latium became too narrow for the Romans, they cured their political ills by conquering the rest of Italy. When Italy became too narrow, Caesar crossed the Alps.

So far Mommsen. The conclusions drawn from his ”law” by some of his successors are ingenious. They amount to this: As Rome grew in power and culture, so Brandenburg, since the days of the Great Elector, has been expanding in spirit and in territory.

That ill.u.s.trious prince began by absorbing Prussia. Frederick the Great added Silesia and a slice of Poland. Wilhelm I obtained Schleswig, Holstein, Alsace, and Lorraine by war, and Saxony and Bavaria by benevolent a.s.similation. The present Kaiser has already acquired Belgium by the former and Austria by the latter process. Like the Rome of Caesar, the German Empire is now at war on the one hand with decadent civilizations and on the other with a horde of barbarians. What Greece and Carthage were to Rome, France and England are to Germany, while Russia is the modern counterpart of the Gauls, Britons, and Germans of the _Commentaries_. Such at least is what certain writers think the Germans think.

VII. Notes and Exercises

1. Note the framework: (Par. 1) Mommsen's Law; (Par. 2) Ill.u.s.tration 1--Rome; (Par. 3) Ill.u.s.tration 2--Germany.

2. Topics for short speeches: Theodor Mommsen; The Rise of the Roman Empire; The Greeks; The People of the West; The Samnites and Etruscans; Brandenburg; The Great Elector; Prussia; Frederick the Great; Silesia; Poland; Schleswig and Holstein; Alsace and Lorraine; Saxony and Bavaria; Carthage; Julius Caesar and his _Commentaries_.

3. Add to the model paragraphs on the expansion of Spain, France, Russia, England, and the United States, or on any one of them.

VIII. Suggested Reading

Caesar's _Commentaries on the Gallic War_. Macaulay's _Frederick the Great_. Southey's _Life of Nelson_. Parkman's _The Conspiracy of Pontiac_. Parkman's _Montcalm and Wolfe_. Fiske's _The Mississippi Valley in the Civil War_.

IX. Memorize

HUMANITY

I would not enter on my list of friends, Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility, the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.

An inadvertent step may crush the snail That crawls at evening in the public path; But he that has humanity, forewarned, Will tread aside and let the reptile live.

The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight, And charged perhaps with venom, that intrudes, A visitor unwelcome, into scenes Sacred to neatness and repose, the alcove, The chamber, or refectory, may die; A necessary act incurs no blame.

Not so when, held within their proper bounds, And guiltless of offence, they range the air, Or take their pastime in the s.p.a.cious field.

There they are privileged; and he that hunts Or harms them there is guilty of a wrong.

The sum is this: If man's convenience, health, Or safety interfere, his rights and claims Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs.

Else they are all--the meanest things that are-- As free to live and to enjoy that life, As G.o.d was free to form them at the first, Who, in his sovereign wisdom, made them all.

Ye, therefore, who love mercy, teach your sons To love it too.

WILLIAM COWPER.

CHAPTER XVI

EDITORIALS--CONSTRUCTIVE

”Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.”

JOHN MILTON.