h, others German, others Italian.

Occupation of the same territory is not essential to nationality. Not
only may a nation be scattered,--its parts dwelling in several
lands,--as in the case of the Jews, but a nation may migrate in a body
and preserve its national character in transit, or it may have no
fixed territorial abode whatever. The Tartars and the Arabs are
nations ever in motion, and held but the most loosely by any tenure of
soil.

And even citizenship under the same government, does not of itself
exhaust the idea of a nation. Russia may be said to include many
nations under her sway.

Yet the ideas of race, language, country and government, all enter
into, and with greater or less distinctness, and to a greater or less
extent, constitute the general idea of a nation. The French have in
general the same origin: they speak the same language: they possess a
definite territory: they live under one government. They are of Gallic
origin: we call their language French: their home is France: they are
the subjects of Napoleon.

These several ideas of a nation do not, however, seem to be equally
essential. It is in the idea of Government, the idea of the State, in
which an associated body of men rises to view as a personality, and as
a sovereign power, clothed with divine privileges and prerogatives,
subsisting for high moral ends, dispensing justice amongst its own
citizens in the name of God, and treating with other States as
responsible persons like itself, with whom it dwells as in a family of
nations to possess the earth;--it is in this idea that the ideas of
community of origin and of language, and occupation of the same
territory, merge themselves as subordinate or accidental, and that our
view of a nation is most satisfactory and complete.

The functions of supreme government are rarely exercised over a very
small body of men. And nations need to be of some magnitude to
realize the benefits of national existence. A nation, just in virtue
of its national constitution, is in a measure separated from the rest
of mankind. It has an existence by itself. It ought, then, to have a
completeness in itself. It should be made up of so many and such
variety of parts, that these parts in their inter-action, may produce
a sufficient life. Its classes of citizens and their occupations,
should be so diversified and numerous, that in the mutual dependence
and support, the highest possible benefit may result. _Size_ has t