in hallucination. Capital in our time is not content to be a
patriot, it is a Jingo. As to labour, if we turn to its politics we find
Herr Bebel declaring that the German socialist is first of all a German,
and Mr Ramsay MacDonald pledging his adherents to support any war
necessary for the assertion of English prestige. If we turn to its
theoretical sociology we find the national idea rehabilitated and
triumphant.

Such intellectual reconstructions do not, as a rule, begin in England,
or find in English their characteristic formulae. Mr Blatchford might
indeed be cited, but it is in the brilliant literature of German Social
Democracy that the most scientific expression of the new spirit is to be
sought. Truly Marx has been indeed translated. His abstract and
etiolated internationalism has been replaced by the warm humanity of
writers like, say, David or Pernerstorfer. The principle of nationality
is Vindicated by the latter in a noble passage. I quote it from
Sombart's "Socialism and the Social Movement."

"Nationality in its highest form is ... a precious possession. It
is the highest expression of human civilisation in an individual
form, and mankind is the richer for its appearance. Our purpose is
not only to see to it that men shall be housed and fed and clothed
in a manner worthy of human beings, but also that they may become
humanised by participation in the culture of centuries, that they
may themselves possess culture and produce it. All culture is
national. It takes its rise in some special people, and reaches its
highest form in national character.... Socialism and the national
idea are thus not opposed to each other. Every attempt to weaken
the national idea is an attempt to lessen the precious possessions
of mankind.... Socialism wants to organise, and not disintegrate,
humanity. But in the organisms of mankind, not individuals, but
nations are the tissues, and if the whole organism is to remain
healthy it is necessary for the tissues to be healthy.... The
peoples, despite the changes they undergo, are everlasting, and
they add to their own greatness by helping the world upward. And
so we are at one and the same time good Socialists and good
Germans."

This might almost seem to be a rhapsody, but every movement of
continental politics in recent times confirms and enforces its plain
truth. "The spirit of resurgen