cultural resources in henrik ibsen's early environment - Ibsen.net

from the first moment been indivisible from the disorganizing [tendency]. Is this not
already expressed in the concept of nation and nationality, which was expressed with such
energy at the same moment one threw off the tyrants' yoke? When the unnatural bond
was dissolved, then one immediately looked for a natural one; or more correctly: the
latter bond one used already as a belt of strength, as one attacked the former. It was
precisely by the invocation of nationality, that the men of the liberation led the battle.
And this spirit once evoked cannot let itself be bound again!
It must further be recognized that in the beginning the conception of what actually
constitutes a nationality was only vague. To be sure, at first one took this conception only
from the negative side; one felt it should be a natural, in-itself free solidarity, not a unity
based on dynastic joint ownership. The poet Walter Scott can be said to be among the
first who brought to the attention of Europe what significance common descent and
language have with respect to the determination of nationality. In his romantic
descriptions of England's and Scotland's ancient history he has pointed out with great
clarity the opposition between the Saxon and the French people, who have met on the
same ground; and after him French writers of history especially have developed the
romantic and German-Scandinavian tribal-characters--an opposition which can be said to
have become a basic principle in modern historical research.
Practically-speaking, affinity of language and descent, with clearer or vaguer
consciousness of its actual significance, gradually manifested itself in several corners of
Europe. Germany's unity has been celebrated already for a long time now in the songs of
the poets, and at present there is scarcely one young person in Germany who is not an
adherent of this idea. South of the Alps one dreams already stronger and stronger dreams
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