ational units and even a
certain amount of international unity in the world. How have they come
to exist? What are the interests that hold them together? What are the
forms of association that are practicable on such a large scale? Is
there a tendency to stress the control of the group over its
individual members, even its aristocracy 01 birth or wealth? These are
questions that require some sort of an answer. Beyond them are other
questions concerning the relations between these larger groups. Are
there common interests or compelling forces that have merged hitherto
sovereign states into federal or imperial union? Is it conceivable
that such mutually jealous nations as the European powers may
surrender willingly their individual interests of minor importance for
the sake of the larger good of the whole? Can political independence
ever become subordinate to social welfare? Are there any spiritual
bonds that can hold more strongly than national ambitions and national
pride? Such questions as these carry the student of society into a
wider range of corporate life than the average man enters, but a range
of life in which the welfare of every individual is involved.

315. =The Significance of National Life.=--The nation is a group of
persons, families, and communities united for mutual protection and
the promotion of the general welfare, and recognizing a sovereign
power that controls them all. Some nations have been organized from
above in obedience to the will of a successful warrior or peaceful
group; others have been organized peacefully from below by the
voluntary act of the people themselves. The nation in its capacity as
a governing power is a state, but a nation exercises other functions
than that of control; it exists to promote the common interests of
mankind over a wider area than that of the local community. The
historic tendency of nations has been to grow in size, as the
transmission of ideas has become easy, and the extension of control
has been made widely possible. The significance of national life is
the social recognition at present given to community of interest by
millions of individuals who believe that it is profitable for them to
live under the same economic regulations, social legislation, and
educational system, even though of mingled races and with various
ideals.

316. =How the Nation Developed.=--The nation in embryo can be found in
the primitive horde which was made up of families related by