Without some initial sense of cohesion, no institutional devices, no
blue prints, will in the end prove effective. The element of cohesion is provided by an instinctive sense of unity, which derives from something more than a vague identity of purpose, but is based upon feelings of similarity. The hearts of men, as Kipling assured us, are very small ; if men and women are to devote their hearts to any cause they must feel personally identified with that cause. We are psychologically so constituted that we find it difficult emotion- ally to identify ourselves with causes, areas or communities which are too dissimilar or too remote ; and since " patriotism " is a more constant human emotion than economics, and implies the identifica- tion of self with some wider community, it is by the enlargement of patriotism that the sense of cohesion can be widened. Thus, whereas the creation of a world-patriotism, in that it ignores the ordinary functioning of human emotions, is a remote ideal, the creation of European patriotism, based upon an already existing sense of simi- larity and contiguity, is in no sense a fantastic ideal. Instead of starting from some universal dogma of brotherhood, you would start to build slowly upon the foundations of an inward community of tradition, culture, feeling and purposes. It has been in this manner that all stable federations have been formed. It was not, in fact, by " blood and iron " that German unity was forged. It was achieved through the gradual growth, from 1812 onwards, of a general sense of solidarity among the Germanic peoples. It was not the written constitution which in effect created the federation of the United States, but a general awareness of an identity of tradition, opportunity and purpose. Nor should we of all people forget that the most striking example of international fusion which the modern world has witnessed—namely, the British Commonwealth—was based, not upon the abolition of individual sovereignty, but upon the fullest development of national sovereignties, linked together by an identity of tradition and beliefs.
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