The nation as a State is an ethical reality which exists and lives in
measure as it develops. A standstill is its death. Therefore the
State is not only the authority which governs and which gives the
forms of law and the worth of the spiritual life to the individual
wills, but it is also the power which gives effect to its will in
foreign matters, causing it to be recognised and respected by
demonstrating through facts the universality of all the manifestations
necessary for its development. Hence it is organization as well as
expansion, and it may be thereby considered, at least virtually, equal
to the very nature of the human will, which in its evolution
recognises no barriers, and which realises itself by proving its
infinity.