“Nothing sweeter than one’s native land” Odyss. 9, 34 
is
already a commonplace. If nothing is sweeter, then
is anything more holy and divine? Truly of all that
men count holy and divine their native land is cause
‘and teacher, in that she bears, nurtures and educates
them. To be sure, many admire cities for their size,
their splendour and the magnificence of their public
works, but everyone loves his own country; and
even among men completely overmastered by the
lust of the eye, no one is so misguided as to be forgetful of it because of the greater number of wonders
in other countries.

 

Therefore a man who prides
himself on being citizen of a prosperous state does
not know, it seems to me, what sort of honour one
should pay his native land, and such an one would
clearly take it ill if his lot had fallen in a less
pretentious place. For my part I prefer to honour
the mere name of native land. In attempting to
compare states, it is proper, of course, to investigate
their size and beauty and the abundance of their supplies; but when it is a question of choosing between
them, nobody would choose the more splendid and
give up his own. He would pray that it too might
be as prosperous as any, but would choose it, no matter
what it was. Upright children and good fathers do



 

just the same thing. A lad of birth and breeding
would not honour anyone else above his father, and
a father would not neglect his son and cherish some
other lad. In fact, fathers, influenced by their
affection, give their sons so much more than their
due that they think them the best-looking, the
tallest and the most accomplished in every way.
One who does not judge his son in this spirit does
not seem to me to have a father’s eyes.
 

In the first place, then, the name of fatherland
is closer to one’s heart than all else, for there is
nothing closer than a father. If one pays his father
proper honour, as law and nature direct, then one
should honour his fatherland still more, for his father
himself belonged to if and his father’s father and all
their forbears, and the name of father goes back
until it reaches the father-gods.

 

Even the gods
have countries that they rejoice in, and although
they watch over all the abodes of man, deeming that
every land and every sea is theirs, nevertheless each
honours the place in which he was born above all
other states. Cities are holier when they are homes
of gods, and islands more divine if legends are told
of the birth of gods in them. Indeed, sacrifices
are accounted pleasing to the gods when one goes to
their native places to perform the ceremony. If, then,
the name of native land is in honour with the gods,
should it not be far more so with mankind?

 

Each
of us had his first sight of the sun from his native
land, and so that god, universal though he be, is
nevertheless accounted by everyone a home-god, because of the place from which he saw him first.
Moreover, each of us began to speak there, learning


 

first to talk his native dialect, and came to know the
gods there. If a man’s lot has been cast in such a
land that he has required another for his higher
education, he should still be thankful for these early
teachings, for he would not have known even the
meaning of “state” if his country had not taught
him that there was such a thing.