Pagina 561 di 1391

The powers of action and feeling are necessarily weaker and more

balanced when they are diffused through a community; whence

arises the often discussed question, 'Can a nation, like an

individual, have a conscience?' We hesitate to say that the

characters of nations are nothing more than the sum of the

characters of the individuals who compose them; because there may

be tendencies in individuals which react upon one another. A

whole nation may be wiser than any one man in it; or may be

animated by some common opinion or feeling which could not

equally have affected the mind of a single person, or may have

been inspired by a leader of genius to perform acts more than

human. Plato does not appear to have analysed the complications

which arise out of the collective action of mankind.