rest of the Teutonic combustibles. We cannot put out either of them, but must let them crackle and give out blast after blast, till the panic is over. Then we shall be able to look about us and find out how much is left of the German intelligence.

To recapitulate:-Germany has gone mad through dwelling on her imaginary wrongs. This came about because of the lack of political training in Germany, which left the citizen at the mercy of Government officials for his private opinions. The learned and eloquent classes thus became the tools of a military organization. The result has been an era of panic and destructive insanity of which this war is a sign.

III

WAR AND KULTUR

THERE is undoubtedly some good connected with every war, as there is good in everything; but what that good is and how to get at it are the problems. The German intellectuals are responsible for the crudest answer to the question that has ever been framed. They say that through annexation and destruction Germany is to endow the world with her spirit. The great biblical scholar Harnack compares his country to our Saviour, "Obedient to His death upon the cross." It seems almost wrong to perpetuate these blasphemies by quoting them; but on the other hand they are the best cultures we have of the disease: the germ of the war-whatever it is— is in them. The metaphysic of the war lives here. These precious documents house the brain of a nation, and they will remain after the war has become a dream. Facts may be doubted, but arguments are immortal.

What is cultivation, and is it the same as Kultur? Are the Germans right when they say that Kultur and war go together; that Kultur breeds war and war Kultur? I am inclined to think that they are right. Kultur has always been something written in German by a man who knew one subject. It has always been a thing that came in boxes, accompanied by maps and schedules. The labourers in it were licensed, and the fields were numbered. For instance, the scholars of Egypt must not invade Abyssinia, nor the man with a license good for Rome, dig in Tuscany. The Middle Ages must be examined only by specialists. The Militarism of Kultur has always been as rigid as the Kultur of Militarism. In which of them do we find the truest essence of Germany?

We are here approaching a very large subject. We can see that the German professor readily obeys military discipline because he has always accepted regulations. His researches have been made under permission. When commanded not to look under a particular table, he has always obeyed. When he is now commanded to stand on the table and bark, he does so. This is Kultur. It has produced books that are convenient if properly used, and dangerous if taken seriously; for hidden in each of the books is a secret-service

man. These sappers and miners attack history and pomology, bacteriology and the making of lenses, with the same phlegm. The present war, by exposing the intimate workings of the whole German ant-hill, of which the top has been blown off,-is going to disclose matters of deep sociological interest. It is going to show us in what directions Kultur was to be trusted, and in what directions it was not to be trusted. No doubt, certain healthy limbs of Kultur will remain on the tree of learning after this war is over. The old Germany that rested on Luther, Kant, Goethe, and the musicians will certainly survive; it fought its way without cannon. But much of the new post-Bismarckian Kultur will fall with the epoch of race-hatred out of which it grew.

IV

OVERWORK AND SPECIALISM

DURING the last forty years, every class in Germany has been steadily overworked. The Germans have been over-trained, over-specialized, over-sensitized. Consequently they are to-day over-anxious, over-self-conscious, over-virtuous, over-determined to build their Tower of Babel or to die in the attempt. Much that seems to us perverse about them is due to mental fatigue.

He

The German small boy is subjected to a pressure of work which startles the rest of the world. is obliged to pass certain fixed examinations as he approaches certain ages. His whole life is a game in which he may not miss a stroke without imperilling his social and commercial and military position in the Empire for his whole career. may be recalled in passing that Germany is the only country in the world where children commit suicide. Any Englishman or American who comes in contact with the German system of child-training is apt to exclaim: "This is too severe. It would

It