Nevertheless, a belief, whether well grounded or not, in a common racial origin is one of the root principles of the idea of nationality.
"What is a nation ?" the great Magyar nationalist, Kossuth, asked a Serb representative at the Hungarian Diet of 1848.

The reply was: "A race which possesses its own language, customs, and culture, and enough self-consciousness to preserve them." "A nation must also have its own government," objected Kossuth.

"We do not go so far," explained his interlocutor; "one nation can live under several different governments, and again several nations can form a single state."[1] Both the Magyar and the Serb wore right, though the latter was speaking of "nationality" and the former of "nation." The conversation is in fact instructive in more ways than one.

It would be difficult to find a better definition of _nationality_ than that given by the Serb speaker.

A common language, a common culture, and common customs: these are the outward and visible signs which make a people conscious of its common race, which make it, in other words, a nationality.
[Footnote 1: R.W.