The "Spaniards" had been accustomed to be
linked together by Rome in an administrative unity, as a diocesis of the Late
Empire. But this geographical-administrative notion was a matter of mere
acceptation from without, not an inspiration from within, and by no manner of
means an aspiration towards the future.
However much reality one may wish to allow to this idea in the XIth
Century, it will be recognised that it does not even reach the vigour and
precision which the idea of Hellas had for the Greeks of the IVth. And yet,
Hellas was never a true national idea. The appropriate historical comparison
would be rather this: Hellas was for the Greeks of the IVth Century, and Spania
for the "Spaniards" of the XIth and even of the XIVth, what Europe was
for XIXth-Century "Europeans." This shows us how the attempts to form national unity advance
towards their purpose like sounds in a melody. The mere tendency of yesterday
will have to wait until to-morrow before taking shape in the final outpouring of
national inspirations. But on the other hand it is almost certain that its time
will come. There is now coming for Europeans the time when Europe can convert
itself into a national idea. And it is much less Utopian to believe this to-day
than it would have been to prophesy in the XIth Century the unity of Spain. The
more faithful the national State of the West remains to its genuine inspiration,
the more surely will it perfect itself in a gigantic continental State. -
