视频原创：Patriotism

生菜先生

这一次选了托克维尔的名篇，与大家分享。

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下面是原文。

Patriotism

by Alexis de Tocqueville (1805－1859)

There is one sort of patriotic attachment which principally arises from that instinctive, disinterested, and undefinable feeling which connects the affections of man with his birthplace.

This natural fondness is united with a taste for ancient customs and a reverence for traditions of the past; those who cherish it love their country as they love the mansion of their fathers.

They love the tranquility that it affords them; they cling to the peaceful habits that they have contracted within its bosom; they are attached to the reminiscences that it awakens; and they are even pleased by living there in a state of obedience.

This patriotism is sometimes stimulated by religious enthusiasm, and then it is capable of making prodigious efforts.

It is in itself a kind of religion: it does not reason, but it acts from the impulse of faith and sentiment.

In some nations the monarch is regarded as a personification of the country; and, the fervour of patriotism being converted into the fervour of loyalty, they take a sympathetic pride in his conquests, and glory in his power.

There was a time under the ancient monarchy when the French felt a sort of satisfaction in the sense of their dependence upon the arbitrary will of their king; and they were wont to say with pride: "We live under the most powerful king in the world."

But, like all instinctive passions, this kind of patriotism incites great transient exertions, but no continuity of effort.

It may save the state in critical circumstances, but often allows it to decline in times of peace.

While the manners of a people are simple and its faith unshaken, while society is steadily based upon traditional institutions whose legitimacy has never been contested, this instinctive patriotism is wont to endure.

But there is another species of attachment to country which is more rational than the one I have been describing.

t is perhaps less generous and less ardent, but it is more fruitful and more lasting: it springs from knowledge; it is nurtured by the laws, it grows by the exercise of civil rights; and, in the end, it is confounded with the personal interests of the citizen.

A man comprehends the influence which the wellbeing of his country has upon his own; he is aware that the laws permit him to contribute to that prosperity, and he labours to promote it, first because it benefits him, and secondly because it is in part his own work.