45 2 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
large as they had formerly seemed to Carthage ; now they are again ordinary provinces and medium states.
The school of space is made easier by the fact that a grow- ing state of the same dimensions as one whose territorial devel- opment is arrested will, nevertheless, always seem greater ; for a part of its future greatness is added, in the sight of our mind's eye, to that which we actually behold and comprehend. The possibility of growth magnifies the image of the expanding state, for never is it seen with sharply defined outlines, but stretching out from its hopeful present indefinitely into the future.
Finally, we must not forget the effects of space which have to do only with relative extent. Contracted mountain districts lend a feeling of nearness to nature to their inhabitants, so far as these do not huddle together in the valleys. In contrast to the townsman, the countryman enjoys the possibility of a more free development of his personality, since he has more room and comes less often into contact with his fellow-men. The his- toric characteristics of the German forest folk, of the agricul- tural village community, and the city-state, have a certain con- nection with the wider or narrower area at the disposal of the clan and the individual. 1
The capacity for territorial conquest, which forms one element in "the qualities of a ruler," or in "a talent for organization," must meet a similar endowment in the people, if it is to lead to an enduring extension of political area. The combination of ability for far-reaching territorial dominion on the part of indi- viduals, with activity and adaptability in the masses, attains the greatest results. From it the historical achievements of a peo- ple derive both a certain swing and permanence, as was formerly shown by the German colonization in what forms today the northeast of Germany, and later by the Anglo-Saxon settlements in North America and Australia. As the territory has grown, this combination has come to be a system, whose methods and
1 Von Wictersheim traces the contrast between the Roman government and the German clan-community back to the narrow and broad territories from which they were respectively sprung. Geschichte der Volkerwanderung, Vol. I, p. 347.
