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390 RISE OF THE CONTINENTALstances fitted? The progressof whole nations is in thisrespect the same as that of individuals ;nor can it be otherwise, since it is of such that they are composed. As amongstindividuals it is emulation which ripens youthinto manhood, so it is also amongst nations; and it would probablybe in vain to search in history for an example of a nationwhich became greatwithout the impulse of rivalry.TheGreeks would never have been the first nation of their time,had it not been for their victory over the Persians Never!would Rome have been mistress of the world, had it notbeen for the struggle with Carthage and Carthage would;have been without a Hamilcar and a Hannibal, had she notbeen the rival of Rome. Nay, even when she was mistressof the world, and seemed to stand without a rival, Romewould scarcely have outlived the first century of our era,had not the contest with the Germanic nations, which finallysubdued her, then upheld her in her place.And does notthe history of modern Europe present an equal number ofexamples Have ? not Spain, France, and the Netherlandsraised themselves since the sixteenth century bytheir mutual rivalry? Was not the rivalry between the Catholic andProtestant parties the life of the German confederation?Would Peter the Great, would Frederic II., have reachedtheir heightof power,if the one had not had Swedes, theother Austrians to engage with And ? yet in none of theseinstances has national rivalry done so much as in the contest between England and France. It was this which drewout the noblest qualitiesof both nations it was this whichpreserved that love of freedom and independence which isfounded on patriotismit was this which kept alive the mostof the human race itwas this which not onlylofty feelingsbrought to perfection the civilization of these nations, butrefinement in the mostalso planted the seeds of Europeandistant parts of the globe ;and thus what in the eyes ofshort-sighted mortals was frequently considered the sourceof misery and calamity, became in the hands of Providencethe means of producing and diffusingthe perfection ofour race.And thus, by taking this view, we escape thatpartialitywhich in anyless exalted one is unavoidable. If we placeourselves in the position of either of the two nations, we