It may consist
entirely of moribund old gentlemen. It may be moribund itself.
We may call it a young club, in the light of the fact that it was
founded yesterday. We may also call it a very old club in the light
of the fact that it will most probably go bankrupt to-morrow.
All this appears very obvious when we put it in this form.
Any one who adopted the young-community delusion with regard
to a bank or a butcher's shop would be sent to an asylum.
But the whole modern political notion that America and the colonies
must be very vigorous because they are very new, rests upon no
better foundation. That America was founded long after England
does not make it even in the faintest degree more probable
that America will not perish a long time before England.
That England existed before her colonies does not make it any the less
likely that she will exist after her colonies. And when we look at
the actual history of the world, we find that great European nations
almost invariably have survived the vitality of their colonies.
When we look at the actual history of the world, we find, that if
there is a thing that is born old and dies young, it is a colony.
The Greek colonies went to pieces long before the Greek civilization.
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