There are strong bonds which link man with his native land, with the familiar landscapes, the summits, the springs which sculpt their way across the pastures, the villages which evolve slowly, or those that die, hamlets in the lee of the immobile rock or hidden in the beech woods dreaming of the past. Whatever education and life may bring later on, each in his own way, every child has their native land- a country of their own- in their flesh, in their blood, and in their conscience. Each person derives both their qualities and their faults from their upbringing, their liveliest instincts, their most acute feelings, their engrained habits, their deepest rooted prejudices, their most banal superstitions- all of these are rooted in the land where they grew up. One's native land illuminates one's conscience.
