And lesser breeds without the law.
But Mr Kipling is only a curiosity among us. We are much more modest
than that. But you are like that. You are not only a nation. You are,
except the Chinese, the most isolated, the most tenacious, the most
exclusive nation in history. Other races have changed through the
centuries beyond recognition or have disappeared altogether. Where are
the Persians of the spacious days of Cyrus? Who finds in the Egyptians
of to-day the spirit and genius of the mighty people who built the
Pyramids and created the art of the Third Dynasty? What trace is there
in the modern Cretans of the imperial race whose seapower had become
a legend before Homer sang? Can we find in the Greeks of our time any
reminiscence of the Athens of Pericles? Or in the Romans any kinship
with the sovereign people that conquered the world from Parthia to
Britain, and stamped it with the signature of its civilisation as
indelibly as it stamped it with its great highways? The nations chase
each other across the stage of time, and vanish as the generations
of men chase each other and vanish. You and the Chinese alone seem
indestructible. It is no extravagant fancy that foresees that when the
last fire is lit on this expiring planet it will be a Chinaman and a Jew
who will stretch their hands to its warmth, drink in the last breath of
air, and write the final epitaph of earth. No, it is too late by many a
thousand years to deny your nationhood, for it is the most enduring fact
in human records. And being a nation without a fatherland, you run like
a disturbing immiscible fluid through the blood of all the nations. You
need a home for your own peace and for the world's peace. I am going to
try and help you to get one.
[Illustration: 0254]
[Illustration: 0201]