We cannot depend on the foreigner unless the
foreigner depends on us. This is the very essence of _society_. We do
not place ourselves in a state of independence by breaking natural
relations, but in a state of isolation.
Remark also: we isolate ourselves in the anticipation of war; but the
very act of isolation is the commencement of war. It renders it more
easy, less burdensome, therefore less unpopular. Let nations become
permanent recipient customers each of the other, let the interruption
of their relations inflict upon them the double suffering of privation
and surfeit, and they will no longer require the powerful navies
which ruin them, the great armies which crush them; the peace of the
world will no longer be compromised by the caprice of a Napoleon or of
a Bismarck, and war will disappear through lack of aliment, resources,
motive, pretext, and popular sympathy.
We know well that we shall be reproached (in the cant of the day) for
proposing interest, vile and prosaic interest, as a foundation for the
fraternity of nations. It would be preferred that it should have its
foundation in charity, in love, even in self-renunciation, and that,
demolishing the material comfort of man, it should have the merit of a
generous sacrifice.
Pages:
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155