Page:H. D. Traill - From Cairo to the Soudan Frontier.djvu/33

which seem obviously designed for union; it separates and alienates natural forces which are striving for co-operation, and which come so near to fulfilling what strikes one as their obvious destiny that one cannot but resent the narrow barrier which alone stands between them and success. The isthmus which keeps two oceans from mingling their waters in one common highway of nations is a purely gratuitous obstacle. This you cannot say of the strait which sunders continents; for straits are the boundary fences of states and races, and their existence makes for the individual security of peoples, and therefore for the peace of the world. Isolation is but a cheap price to pay for the blessing of even compulsory amity. If France, Italy, Germany, and Russia were suddenly converted by some cosmic catastrophe into four islands, the volume of international commerce might at first suffer some decrease, but how vast would be the compensation in internal wealth which would result from the