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Nation and Empire: Real and Political Unities 311But there have been instances in the evolution of the nation inwhich the political unity preceded and became a basis for thepsychological as in the union of Scotch, English and Welsh toform the British nation. There is no insurmountable reason whya similar evolution should not take place on a larger scale andan imperial unity be substituted for a national unity. Nature haslong been in travail of the imperial grouping, long casting aboutto give it a greater force of permanence, and the emergence ofthe conscious imperial ideal all over the earth and its attempts,though still crude, violent and blundering, to substitute itself forthe national, may not irrationally be taken as the precursory signof one of those rapid leaps and transitions by which she so oftenaccomplishes what she has long been gradually and tentativelypreparing. This then is the possibility we have next to considerbefore we examine the established phenomenon of nationhoodin relation to the ideal of human unity. Two different idealsand therefore two different possibilities were precipitated muchnearer to realisation by the European conflict, — a federation offree nations and, on the other hand, the distribution of the earthinto a few great empires or imperial hegemonies. A practicalcombination of the two ideas became the most tangible possibilityof the not distant future. It is necessary to pause and considerwhether, one element of this possible combination being alreadya living unit, the other also could not under certain circumstancesbe converted into a living unit and the combination,if realised, made the foundation of an enduring new order ofthings. Otherwise it could be no more than a transient devicewithout any possibility of a stable permanence.