The Beginnings of New England | Page 8

to the progress of the human race; and it was free
from some of the worst vices of Oriental civilizations. Yet because of
the fundamental defect that between the Christian Spaniard and his
Mussulman conqueror there could be no political fusion, this brilliant
civilization was doomed. During eight centuries of more or less
extensive rule in the Spanish peninsula, the Moor was from first to last
an alien, just as after four centuries the Turk is still an alien in the
Balkan peninsula. The natural result was a struggle that lasted age after
age till it ended in the utter extermination of one of the parties, and left

behind it a legacy of hatred and persecution that has made the history of
modern Spain a dismal record of shame and disaster. [Sidenote: The
Oriental method of nation-making]
In this first method of nation-making, then, which we may call the
Oriental method, one now sees but little to commend. It was better than
savagery, and for a long time no more efficient method was possible,
but the leading peoples of the world have long since outgrown it; and
although the resulting form of political government is the oldest we
know and is not yet extinct, it nevertheless has not the elements of
permanence. Sooner or later it will disappear, as savagery is
disappearing, as the rudest types of inchoate human society have
disappeared.
The second method by which nations have been made may be called
the Roman method; and we may briefly describe it as conquest with
incorporation, but without representation. The secret of Rome's
wonderful strength lay in the fact that she incorporated the vanquished
peoples into her own body politic. In the early time there was a fusion
of tribes going on in Latium, which, if it had gone no further, would
have been similar to the early fusion of Ionic tribes in Attika or of
Iranian tribes in Media. But whereas everywhere else this political
fusion soon stopped, in the Roman world it went on. One after another
Italian tribes and Italian towns were not merely overcome but admitted
to a share in the political rights and privileges of the victors. By the
time this had gone on until the whole Italian peninsula was
consolidated under the headship of Rome, the result was a power
incomparably greater than any other that the world had yet seen. Never
before had so many people been brought under one government
without making slaves of most of them. Liberty had existed before,
whether in barbaric tribes or in Greek cities. Union had existed before,
in Assyrian or Persian despotisms. Now liberty and union were for the
first time joined together, with consequences enduring and stupendous.
The whole Mediterranean world was brought under one government;
ancient barriers of religion, speech, and custom were overthrown in
every direction; and innumerable barbarian tribes, from the Alps to the
wilds of northern Britain, from the Bay of Biscay to the Carpathian

mountains, were more or less completely transformed into Roman
citizens, protected by Roman law, and sharing in the material and
spiritual benefits of Roman civilization. Gradually the whole vast
structure became permeated by Hellenic and Jewish thought, and thus
were laid the lasting foundations of modern society, of a common
Christendom, furnished with a common stock of ideas concerning
man's relation to God and the world, and acknowledging a common
standard of right and wrong. This was a prodigious work, which raised
human life to a much higher plane than that which it had formerly
occupied, and endless gratitude is due to the thousands of steadfast men
who in one way or another devoted their lives to its accomplishment.
[Sidenote: The Roman method of nation-making]
This Roman method of nation-making had nevertheless its fatal
shortcomings, and it was only very slowly, moreover, that it wrought
out its own best results. It was but gradually that the rights and
privileges of Roman citizenship were extended over the whole Roman
world, and in the mean time there were numerous instances where
conquered provinces seemed destined to no better fate than had awaited
the victims of Egyptian or Assyrian conquest. The rapacity and cruelty
of Caius Verres could hardly have been outdone by the worst of Persian
satraps; but there was a difference. A moral sense and political sense
had been awakened which could see both the wickedness and the folly
of such conduct. The voice of a Cicero sounded with trumpet tones
against the oppressor, who was brought to trial and exiled for deeds
which under the Oriental system, from the days of Artaxerxes to those
of the Grand Turk, would scarcely have called forth a reproving word.
It was by slow degrees that the Roman came to understand the virtues
of his own method, and learned to apply