To become a good world citizen, it is not necessary to distribute
oneself by travel everywhere--although travel is most valuable--any more
than it is absolutely necessary for a worthy citizen of the United
States to cross the continent or have homes in both California and New
York, desirable as that may be.
Nor would one lose any interest in his nation--remembering that only a
bigoted and selfish nationality does harm; and that even in a federation
of the nations of the world each individual nation, like each individual
State in the Union, would have its own interests and would have to do
its part towards expressing the life of the whole.
Of course with the realization of a federation of the world in the
future, there would be public world citizens as well as private world
citizens, just as there are public and private citizens in every nation;
and the public world leaders should necessarily have a higher training,
a wider experience and a broader travel than the private world citizen,
judging from the standpoint of leadership alone.
But independent of these things it should be remembered that every
man--private or public--can acquire full world citizenship by learning
to think in world terms and developing the world consciousness which
makes you feel that you are a necessary part of all that exists. And
this can be done by developing an unprejudiced love for humanity, by
persistently opposing war, by keeping in touch with world statesmen and
reading world literature, by acquiring a love for nature and the seas
which comes from a faith in God, by helping to unify the world's
languages and religions, by advocating constantly a central world
government for the nations, by traveling when one can and by making it
as easy for people to travel as possible, by attending all public
meetings that deal with international movements, by never losing
sight--especially in the hour of perplexity, ridicule and hardship--of
the world vision which is championed on these pages and by becoming
sanely religious so that you will feel that the same good spirit throbs
in your breast that quickens the whole universe into harmony and beauty
as well as every flower and living thing on the globe.
Here are some of the exceptional world citizens. Hear them talk in their
own words:
Whitman:
"There is no trade nor employment but the young man following
it may become a hero,
And there is no object so soft but it makes a hub for the
wheel'd universe,
And I say to any man or woman, let your soul stand cool and
composed before a million universes."
* * * * *
Browning's Christian Creed:
"That face far from vanishes, ever grows
Or decomposes only to recompose
Become my universe that feels and knows."
* * * * *