Author, U: Princeton Review, Vol. 54

Excerpt from The Princeton Review, Vol. 54: July-December, 1878

The same general principles of moral conduct by which an individual is or ought to be guided in his private conduct, is a truth which seems involved in the very conception of national being. The idea of a nation implies the existence of other nations, nations which, in the natural course of things, will have some kind of dealings with one another. And unless the whole world is to be a scene of unmixed havoc and 'bloodshed, those dealings must be guided by some moral rule. There must be a right and a wrong in the conduct of nations as well as in the con duct of individuals. But we may go further, and say that the rule of right and wrong which guides the conduct of nations must be the same as the rule of right and wrong which guides the conduct of individuals. To whatever source we may trace those laws of morality which most of us acknowledge, as a matter of fact we do acknowledge them. And we not only acknowledge them, but, as our minds are constituted, we cannot conceive any other laws. In the civilized world of modern Europe and America we take theological and political differences for granted but we assume a common morality. We need not for our present purpose dispute whether that morality is or is not eternal and unchanging. At first sight, the moral standard of one age often seems to differ widely from that of the age before and after it the moral standard of one civilized country._ seems to differ widely from that of some neighbouring country. But such differences are often more apparent than real. They are differences which are quite consistent with the acceptance of all the main principles of a common morality. One age, one.

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