ance of truth. Geographically there was very little
in common between the dominion projected more or less definitely in
1473 and any one of the kingdoms of Burgundy as they had successively
existed. That of Charles corresponded very nearly to the ancient
kingdom of Lorraine. Franche-Comte was the only ground common to the
territories actually held by the duke and to the latest kingdom of
Burgundy. His possessions in Picardy and Alsace lay wholly beyond the
limits of either Burgundy or Lorraine. But the old name survived in
his ducal title, and it was that name that lent a semblance of reality
to this fifteenth-century dream of a middle kingdom as outlined in the
duke's mind more or less definitely or as bounded by his ambition.

In retrospect it is clear that more was requisite for the realisation
of the vision of the wished-for nation, than imperial investiture of
a crowned monarch with sovereignty over a group of lands. A modern
writer has pointed out how infinitely subtle is the vital principle
of a nation, one not even to be created by common interests. A
_Zollverein_ is no _patria_. An element of sentiment is needful, and
an element of growth.[23] The nation like the individual is the result
of what has gone before. An heroic past, great men, glory that can
command respect at home and abroad--that is the capital on which
is based a national idea. To have wrought in common, to wish to
accomplish more in the future, are essential conditions to be a
people. "The existence of a nation is a plebiscite of every day, just
as the existence of the individual is a perpetual affirmation of
life."

Now it is evident, in summing up the salient features of this failure,
that a vital principle was not germinating in the inchoate mass.
Charles himself never attained the rank of a national hero. More than
that, with all his individual states, he never had any nation, great
or small, at his back. Personally he was a man without a country. His
father, Philip, was French, pure and simple, quite as French as his
grandfather, Philip the Hardy, the first Duke of Burgundy out of the
House of Valois, even though Philip the Good had extended his sway
to many non-French-speaking peoples and was able to use the Flemish
speech if it suited his whim. But that was as a condescension and as
something extraneous. The chief of French peers remained his proudest
title; his ability to influence French affairs, the task he liked
best.

His son was