LXVI.—PATRIOTISM AND CHRISTIANITY.

LXVI.—PATRIOTISM AND CHRISTIANITY.CHATEAUBRIAND.

CHATEAUBRIAND.

1. But it is the Christian religion that has invested[477]patriotism[478]with its true character. This sentiment led to the commission of crime among the ancients, because it was carried to excess; Christianity has made it one of the principal affections in man, but not an exclusive[479]one. It commands us above all things to be just; it requires us to cherish the whole family of Adam, since we ourselves belong to it, though our countrymen have the first claim to our attachment.

2. This morality was unknown before the coming of the Christian law-giver, who had been unjustly accused of attempting to extirpate[480]the passions: God destroys not his own work. The Gospel is not the destroyer of the heart, but its regulator. It is to our feelings whattaste is to the fine arts; it retrenches all that is exaggerated, false, common, and trivial.[481]It leaves all that is fair, and good, and true. The Christian religion, rightly understood, is only primitive[482]nature washed from original[483]pollution.[484]

3. It is when at a distance from our country that we feel the full force of the instinct by which we are attached to it. For want of the reality, we try to feed upon dreams; for the heart is expert in deception, and there is no one who has been suckled at the breast of a woman but has drunk of the cup of illusion.[485]Sometimes it is a cottage which is situated like the paternal habitation; sometimes it is a wood, a valley, a hill, on which we bestow some of the sweet appellations[486]of our native land. Andromache gives the name of Simois to a brook. And what an affecting object is this little rill, which recalls the idea of a mighty river to her native country! Remote from the soil which gave us birth, nature appears to us diminished, and but the shadow of that which we have lost.

4. Another artifice of the love of country is to attach a great value to an object of little intrinsic worth, but which comes from our native land, and which we have brought with us into exile. The soul seems to dwell even upon the inanimate things which have shared our destiny: we remain attached to the down on which our prosperity has slumbered, and still more to the straw on which we counted the days of our adversity. The vulgar have an energetic expression, to describe the languor which oppresses the soul when away from our country. “That man,” they say, “is home-sick.”

5. A sickness it really is, and the only cure for it is to return. If, however, we have been absent for a fewyears, what do we find in the place of our nativity? How few of those whom we left behind in the vigor of health are still alive! Here are tombs where once stood palaces; there rise palaces where once stood tombs. The paternal field is overgrown with briers, or cultivated by the plow of a stranger; and the tree beneath which we frolicked in our boyish days has disappeared.

6. Were we asked, what are those powerful ties which bind us to the place of nativity, we should find some difficulty in answering the question. It is, perhaps, the smile of a mother, of a father, of a sister; it is, perhaps, the recollection of an old preceptor[487]who instructed us, and of the young companions of our childhood; it is, perhaps, the care bestowed upon us by a tender nurse or by some aged domestic, so essential a part of the household; finally, it is something most simple, and, if you please, trivial,—a dog that barked at night in the fields, a nightingale that returned every year to the orchard, the nest of the swallow over the window, the village clock that appeared above the trees, the churchyard yew, or the Gothic tomb. Yet these simple things demonstrate the more clearly the reality of a Providence, as they could not possibly be the source of patriotism, or of the great virtues which it begets, unless by the appointment of the Almighty himself.

[477]In-vestˊ-ed, clothed.[478]Paˊ-tri-ot-ism, love of one’s country.[479]Ex-cluˊ-sive, tending to exclude, or shut out.[480]Exˊ-tir-pate, to root out, to destroy.[481]Trivˊ-i-al, trifling, worthless.[482]Prim-i-tive, first, original.[483]O-rigˊ-i-nal, primary, first.[484]Pol-luˊ-tion, defilement corruption.[485]Il-luˊ-sion, error; false show, unreality.[486]Ap-pel-laˊ-tion, a name by which a thing is called.[487]Pre-ceptˊ-or, a teacher.

[477]In-vestˊ-ed, clothed.

[478]Paˊ-tri-ot-ism, love of one’s country.

[479]Ex-cluˊ-sive, tending to exclude, or shut out.

[480]Exˊ-tir-pate, to root out, to destroy.

[481]Trivˊ-i-al, trifling, worthless.

[482]Prim-i-tive, first, original.

[483]O-rigˊ-i-nal, primary, first.

[484]Pol-luˊ-tion, defilement corruption.

[485]Il-luˊ-sion, error; false show, unreality.

[486]Ap-pel-laˊ-tion, a name by which a thing is called.

[487]Pre-ceptˊ-or, a teacher.

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