were in such unfavorable conditions that her hour of destiny had struck. Then ensued the Atrocious War, which had been prepared for with more persistence, more thoroughness, more ingenuity, and over a longer time, than any other in modern history.

This war sprang as naturally from the German heart and will as a vulture springs from its nest. Prussian egomania, which had succeeded in identifying German national interests with its own; the example of Frederick and Moltke and Bismarck; the impassioned gospel of Treitschke; the comforting reminder of Nietzsche that to be a Superman, you must act like a Superman; the demonstration of Bernhardi that Germany must not longer postpone her battle for World-Dominion; and the Hohenzollern dynastic ambition, circulating through every artery and vein of the Empire were elements, symptoms, omens, that can neither be denied nor explained away. Of course, we must remember that Kant, Fichte, and Hegel - especially Hegel, with

his ideal of the State- had preceded; but it is the men who translate theory into action whom we hold responsible. The mind of the disciple, like an imperfect lens, distorts the teaching of the master.

CHAPTER VIII

PRUSSIANIZING GERMANY

Look to the essence of a thing, whether it be a point of doctrine, of practice, or of interpretation.

C

an

MARCUS AURELIUS, VIII, 22.

NIVILIZED peoples have invariably cherished an ideal, which they call Culture it might be of the intellect; it might be of the soul.

The culture which affects the soul is twofold, according as it lays greater stress on Goodness or on Beauty. "To make reason and the will of God prevail," as Bishop Wilson expressed it, is the end of ethical culture; and life thus conceived becomes, in Arnold's phrase, a "study of perfection." The definition of Culture which springs from Beauty, or has Beauty for its special quest and desire, evades a formula. Like Marlowe, we still ask: "What is beauty?" But we recognize Taste as the product of this culture. In actual life,

however, we seldom disturb ourselves over these nice distinctions. We see men who are cultivated chiefly on the side of intellect; others we think of in terms of goodness, lovers of their fellow men, seekers after moral and social perfection; and we know those whom metre or music or color or form sets vibrating the artists.

The ideal man possesses taste and sympathy, the qualities common to all of these. He is not a specialist - for to be a specialist almost inevitably limits open-mindedness and sympathy. He is cultivated rather than learned; and nothing about him, not even his talk, will appear salient or aggressive, but all will be natural, and whatever he has acquired from learning, life, or art will flow from him as simply as fragrance from a flower. By his manners you shall know him manners which register self-control and kindliness, justice, magnanimity, and fairness.

That is not Culture which does not eventuate in the gentleman. A glow of chivalry

clings about it. We see it in Sir Philip Sidney's beautiful, simple courtesy to the dying soldier. It can manifest itself through the highest heroism and through the contacts of everyday life. Although known by what it avoids doing, it is as affirmative as sunshine or as health. But why multiply phrases when Culture speaks for itself?

Culture of the broad and hospitable kind has found only a scanty soil in Germany, and until Goethe came, it had in fact hardly sprouted there. In a community where the standards of living not less than of learning lagged behind those of Germany's neighbors, Goethe's insatiate curiosity soon exhausted its German provender and seized upon the Renaissance and Classical Antiquity to enrich his poetic genius. But the culture which Goethe exemplified better than any other modern was that of an Olympian egotism. Cultivate yourself for yourself; act as if the law of your being were universal law: does not this advice underlie the Goethean system?