Why can one race merge itself in 'a Second, while
a third, in spite of every inducement from "self-intereat, remains obstinately isolated P The Germans, a fine people, lose themselves by millions among the Americans, and by thou- sands among the English, while the Italians, also a fine people, turn Spaniards in Argentina in one generation. Yet the Jews, Armenians, and Parsees have remained separate for ages, and the Poles, conquered, divided, and swallowed up, still declare that they are Poles. They will not be Russians or Germans or Austrians, The Beforma of Cracow this week, for instance, responds in a sort of manifesto to the evertures of the German Emperor by a fiat refusal. The Poles, says the writer, are faithful subjects wherever they may be, but in the spheres of art, literature, and native civilisation, they are independent, and as these things draw their strength and inspiration from the hope that the nation will revive, that hope or aspiration can never be abandoned. " We trust in the future, which holds as many• secrets for us as for others." "To be Poles is the secret of our- vitality." Yeb the Poles, when they were a nation, failed altogether; and even now they produce, with many artiste, many Litteratetcre and some poets, few men who are effective in the government of the world. It looks certainly as if no 'people would commit national suicide unless they were happy, and even that does not apply to the Parsees, now the least persecuted among the sons of men.
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