their intelligence. Therefore, since a nation is cultured which perfects its intelligence and consequently develops the mind by training, nations ought to be cultured. Which was the first point.
§ 53.
§ 895, part 2, Phil. Pract. Univ.
§ 131, part 1, Phil. Pract. Univ.
§ 259, part 1, Phil. Pract. Univ.
Since a nation ought to be cultured, as proved above, in point 1, and therefore ought to develop the mind by training, in determining its actions, too, it ought not to follow the leadership of its natural inclinations and aversions, but rather that of reason, which the law of nature imposes as a sort of rule of conduct and also urges proper decorum. Therefore, since a nation is civilized which enjoys customs conforming to the standard of reason and politeness, nations ought to be civilized. Which was the second point.
§ 204, part 1, Phil. Pract. Univ.
§ 53.
§§ 52, 53.
Finally, since a cultured and civilized nation is not barbarous, moreover since nations ought to be cultured and civilized, as shown above, in points 1 and 2, nations ought not to be barbarous. Which was the third point.
Note, § 53.
It is indeed more to be desired than hoped for that all nations should be cultured and civilized; but it cannot for this reason be denied
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that it is the duty of a nation to seek to become cultured and civilized, developing the mind with the training which destroys barbarism. For there is no question here as to what sort nations are and why it happens that they are such, but what they ought to be. It happens that nations are barbarous through no fault of nature, as if she had refused them the dispositions necessary to the attainment of the training which destroys barbarism, but through the lack of the opportunity to raise the natural dispositions into a habit of life and through the presence of obstacles which divert and distract the mind from this desire and attempt. Who will persuade himself that the natural dispositions of the Greeks have been so changed that they to-day are so utterly unadapted to the learning in which they formerly excelled, and that training without natural gifts does not avail? But since a nation may be cultured, although it be not civilized, especial care must be used that it become civilized, namely by developing the mind by that training especially which removes barbarism. So the Chinese gave their best efforts to training in manners and to statecraft, and so from the most ancient times they have been prominent among the more civilized nations and are so to-day, yet it happens that few, nay, almost none of them have made advances in metaphysics or physics, much less have they acquired the fame of Europeans in mathematics. But on these points a greater light is shed by moral philosophy to be derived a priori from the nature of the human soul. It is sufficient for the present to add the following corollary.
§ 55. What training is especially suitable to nations
§ 54.
Since nations ought to be cultured and civilized and not barbarous, they ought to develop the mind by that training which destroys barbarism, and without which civilized customs cannot exist.
Note, § 54.
§ 53.
Indeed there is no training at all which cannot contribute something towards correcting the will. Still not all training of itself tends to its correction. Therefore consideration must be given especially to that which of itself and directly conduces to this; further perfection, moreover, is to be expected from that which of itself has the least connexion with the appetite. But these things belong to a deeper inquiry, and of them we shall speak more properly in another place. Here is
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pertinent the example of the Chinese of which we have already spoken. The correction of the will depends of course upon the perfection of the intellect; nevertheless there is need of much caution, lest we may pervert the will by perfecting the intellect. This is a point to be considered among those things which we have suggested belong to a deeper inquiry.
§ 56. What purpose nations ought to set before themselves in perfecting the intellect
§ 54.
§ 53.
§ 29.
Likewise because nations ought to be civilized, consequently ought to perfect the intellect, moreover since the perfection of a nation consists in its fitness for attaining the purpose of the state, and since the condition of a nation is perfect, if nothing is lacking in it, which it needs for attaining that purpose; nations in perfecting the intellect ought always to consider the purpose of the state and those things which they need for attaining this purpose, consequently they ought to direct all their efforts to this end.
§ 2.
Note, § 28.
§ 30.
Inasmuch as the state is considered as a single person, to it belongs also an intellect peculiar to the nation, or the human intellect is to be looked at in its relation to the nation itself. Since, therefore, we are here speaking of the perfecting of the intellect, what things are said concerning it are not to be considered without regard to the nation, which as a nation we argue ought to perfect the same. Those things which we have said concerning the preservation of the nation, are with proper variation to be understood also here and in regard to other things which are said of the duties of nations. But just as it is plain from those things which have been proved concerning the establishment of the state, what things are required both for the perfecting of a nation, and for the perfecting of its condition, so likewise it is understood from this, what sort of an intellect ought to be attributed to a nation as such and consequently how it ought to be perfected, in order that a nation be in itself reputed cultured, and in what sense intellectual virtues must be applied to nations, that they may suit it as a nation and that that, which belongs to a nation as such, may be distinguished from that which comes from the individuals to it.
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§ 57. How we must look to a nation in the improving of the will
§ 54.
§ 57, part 2, Phil. Pract. Univ.
§ 53.
§ 56.
§ 321, part 1, Phil. Pract. Univ., and § 547, part 1, Jus Nat.
Likewise since nations ought to be civilized, and therefore ought to have manners adapted to the rule of reason, and consequently to the law of nature, it is evident, as it was before, that in perfecting the will we ought to look to the purpose of the state and to those things which we need for attaining it, and therefore to direct all moral virtues to that end.
Note, § 30.
Just as in any nation we conceive an intellect peculiar to the nation as such, so also in it a will is thought of peculiar to the nation as such. Therefore just as by force of intellect it knows those things which are necessary to the perfection of itself and its form of government, so there ought to be produced a fixed and continual desire to strive after those things which produce this perfection and to avoid the things opposed to it. And hence we must decide what virtues are especially appropriate to a nation and what sort they ought to be, and in what way all other
