,,the ,,appetite ,,of ,,tyranny ,including ,letters to an ,old ,garibaldian ,by ,g4,k4 ,,chesterton ,,contents ,,chapter ,,the ,,facts ,,of ,,the ,,case ,i ,,the ,,war ,,on ,,the ,,word ,,ii ,,the ,,refusal ,,of ,,reciprocity ,,iii ,,the ,,appetite ,,of ,,tyranny ,,iv ,,the ,,escape ,,of ,,folly ,,letters ,,to ,,an ,,old ,,garibaldian ,,the ,,facts ,,of ,,the ,,case ,unless we are all mad1 there is at the back of the most bewildering business a story3 and if we are all mad1 there is no such thing as madness4 ,if ,i set a house on fire1 it is quite true that ,i may illuminate many other people's weaknesses as well as my own4 ,it may be that the master of the house was burned because he was drunk2 it may be that the mistress of the house was burned because she was stingy1 and perished arguing about the expense of the fire-escape4 ,it is1 nevertheless1 broadly true that they both were burned because ,i set fire to their house4 ,that is the story of the thing4 ,the mere facts of the story about the present ,european conflagration are quite as easy to tell4 ,before we go on to the deeper things which make this war the most sincere war of human history1 it is easy to answer the question of why ,england came to be in it at all1 as one asks how a man fell down a coal-hole1 or failed to keep an appointment4 ,facts are not the whole truth4 ,but facts are facts1 and in this case the facts are few and simple4 ,prussia1 ,france1 and ,england had all promised not to invade ,belgium4 ,prussia proposed to invade ,belgium1 because it was the safest way of invading ,france4 ,but ,prussia promised that if she might break in1 through her own broken promise and ours1 she would break in and not steal4 ,in other words1 we were offered at the same instant a promise of faith in the future and a proposal of perjury in the present4 ,those interested in human origin may refer to an old ,victorian writer of ,english1 who1 in the last and most restrained of his historical essays1 wrote of ,frederick the ,great1 the founder of this unchanging ,prussian policy4 ,after describing how ,frederick broke the guarantee he had signed on behalf of ,maria ,theresa1 he then describes how ,frederick sought to put things straight by a promise that was an insult4 ,if she would but let him have ,silesia1 he would1 he said1 stand by her against any power which should try to deprive her of her other dominions1 as if he was not already bound to stand by her1 or as if his new promise could be of more value than the old one4 ,that passage was written by ,macaulay1 but so far as the mere contemporary facts are concerned1 it might have been written by me4 ,upon the immediate logical and legal origin of the ,english interest there can be no rational debate4 ,there are some things so simple that one can almost prove them with plans and diagrams1 as in ,euclid4 ,one could make a kind of comic calendar of what would have happened to the ,english diplomatist if he had been silenced every time by ,prussian diplomacy4 ,suppose we arrange it in the form of a kind of diary4 ,july #bd4 ,germany invades ,belgium4 ,july #be4 ,england declares war4 ,july #bf4 ,germany promises not to annex ,belgium4 ,july #bg4 ,england withdraws from the war4 ,july #bh4 ,germany annexes ,belgium4 ,england declares war4 ,july #bi4 ,germany promises not to annex ,france4 ,england withdraws from the war4 ,july #cj4 ,germany annexes ,france4 ,england declares war4 ,july #ca4 ,germany promises not to annex ,england4 ,aug4 #a4 ,england withdraws from the war4 ,germany invades ,england444 ,how long is anybody expected to go with that sort of game1 or keep peace at that illimitable price8 ,how long must we pursue a road in which promises are all fetishes in front of us and all fragments behind us8 ,no3 upon the cold facts of the final negotiations1 as told by any of the diplomatists in any of the documents1 there is no doubt about the story4 ,and no doubt about the villain of the story4 ,these are the last facts--the facts which involved ,england4 ,it is equally easy to state the first facts--the facts which involved ,europe4 ,the ,prince who practically ruled ,austria was shot by certain persons whom the ,austrian ,government believed to be conspirators from ,servia4 ,the ,austrian ,government piled up arms and armies1 but said not a word either to ,servia their suspect or ,italy their ally4 ,from the documents it would seem that ,austria kept everybody in the dark1 except ,prussia4 ,it is probably nearer the truth to say that ,prussia kept everybody in the dark1 including ,austria4 ,but all that is what is called opinion1 belief1 conviction or common-sense1 and we are not dealing with it here4 ,the objective fact is that ,austria told ,servia to permit ,servian officers to be suspended by the authority of ,austrian officers1 and told ,servia to submit to this within forty-eight hours4 ,in other words1 the sovereign of ,servia was practically told to take off not only the laurels of two great campaigns but his own lawful and national crown1 and to do it in a time in which no respectable citizen is expected to discharge an hotel bill4 ,servia asked for time1 for arbitration--in short1 for peace4 ,but ,prussia had already begun to mobilise2 and ,prussia1 presuming that ,servia might thus be rescued1 declared war4 ,between these two ends of fact1 the ultimatum to ,servia1 the ultimatum to ,belgium1 any one so inclined can of course talk as if everything were relative4 ,if any one ask why the ,czar should rush to the support of ,servia1 it is as easy to ask why the ,kaiser should rush to the support of ,austria4 ,if any one say that the ,french would attack the ,germans1 it is sufficient to answer that the ,germans did attack the ,french4 ,there remain1 however1 two attitudes to consider1 even perhaps two arguments to counter1 which can best be considered and countered under this general head of facts4 ,first of all1 there is a curious1 cloudy sort of argument1 much affected by the professional rhetoricians of ,prussia1 who are sent out to instruct and correct the minds of ,americans or ,scandinavians4 ,it consists of going into convulsions of incredulity and scorn at the mention of ,russia's responsibility for ,servia or ,england's responsibility for ,belgium2 and suggesting that1 treaty or no treaty1 frontier or no frontier1 ,russia would be out to slay ,teutons or ,england to steal colonies4 ,here1 as elsewhere1 ,i think the professors dotted all over the ,baltic plain fail in lucidity1 and in the power of distinguishing ideas4 ,of course it is quite true that ,england has material interests to defend1 and will probably use the opportunity to defend them3 or1 in other words1 of course ,england1 like everybody else1 would be more comfortable if ,prussia were less predominant4 ,the fact remains that we did not do what the ,germans did4 ,we did not invade ,holland to seize a naval and commercial advantage3 and whether they say that we wished to do it in our greed1 or feared to do it in our cowardice1 the fact remains that we did not do it4 ,unless this common-sense principle be kept in view1 ,i cannot conceive how any quarrel can possibly be judged4 ,a contract may be made between two persons solely for material advantage on each side3 but the moral advantage is still generally supposed to lie with the person who keeps the contract4 ,surely it cannot be dishonest to be honest--even if honesty is the best policy4 ,imagine the most complex maze of indirect motives2 and still the man who keeps faith for money cannot possibly be worse than the man who breaks faith for money4 ,it will be noted that this ultimate test applies in the same way to ,servia as to ,belgium and ,britain4 ,the ,servians may not be a very peaceful people2 but1 on the occasion under discussion1 it was certainly they who wanted peace4 ,you may choose to think the ,serb a sort of born robber3 but on this occasion it was certainly the ,austrian who was trying to rob4 ,similarly1 you may call ,england perfidious as a sort of historical summary2 and declare your private belief that ,mr4 ,asquith was vowed from infancy to the ruin of the ,german ,empire1 a ,hannibal and hater of the eagles4 ,but1 when all is said1 it is nonsense to call a man perfidious because he keeps his promise4 ,it is absurd to complain of the sudden treachery of a business man in turning up punctually to his appointment3 or the unfair shock given to a creditor by the debtor paying his debts4 ,lastly1 there is an attitude not unknown in the crisis against which ,i should particularly like to protest4 ,i should address my protest especially to those lovers and pursuers of ,peace who1 very short-sightedly1 have occasionally adopted it4 ,i mean the attitude which is impatient of these preliminary details about who did this or that1 and whether it was right or wrong4 ,they are satisfied with saying that an enormous calamity1 called ,war1 has been begun by some or all of us2 and should be ended by some or all of us4 ,to these people this preliminary chapter about the precise happenings must appear not only dry 7and it must of necessity be the driest part of the task7 but essentially needless and barren4 ,i wish to tell these people that they are wrong2 that they are wrong upon all principles of human justice and historic continuity3 but that they are specially and supremely wrong upon their own principles of arbitration and international peace4 ,these sincere and high-minded peace-lovers are always telling us that citizens no longer settle their quarrels by private violence2 and that nations should no longer settle theirs by public violence4 ,they are always telling us that we no longer fight duels2 and need no longer wage wars4 ,in short1 they perpetually base their peace proposals on the fact that an ordinary citizen no longer avenges himself with an axe4 ,but how is he prevented from revenging himself with an axe8 ,if he hits his neighbour on the head with the kitchen chopper1 what do we do8 ,do we all join hands1 like children playing ,mulberry ,bush1 and say ,we are all responsible for this2 but let us hope it will not spread4 ,let us hope for the happy day when he shall leave off chopping at the man's head2 and when nobody shall ever chop anything for ever and ever4 ,do we say ,let byegones be byegones2 why go back to all the dull details with which the business began2 who can tell with what sinister motives the man was standing there within reach of the hatchet8 ,we do not4 ,we keep the peace in private life by asking for the facts of provocation1 and the proper object of punishment4 ,we do go into the dull details2 we do enquire into the origins2 we do emphatically enquire who it was that hit first4 ,in short we do what ,i have done very briefly in this place4 ,given this1 it is indeed true that behind these facts there are truths2 truths of a terrible1 of a spiritual sort4 ,in mere fact1 the ,germanic power has been wrong about ,servia1 wrong about ,russia1 wrong about ,belgium1 wrong about ,england1 wrong about ,italy4 ,but there was a reason for its being wrong everywhere2 and of that root reason1 which has moved half the world against it1 ,i shall speak later4 ,for that is something too omnipresent to be proved1 too indisputable to be helped by detail4 ,it is nothing less than the locating1 after more than a hundred years of recriminations and wrong explanations1 of the modern ,european evil3 the finding of the fountain from which poison has flowed upon all the nations of the earth4 ,i ,,the ,,war ,,on ,,the ,,word ,it will hardly be denied that there is one lingering doubt in many1 who recognise unavoidable self-defence in the instant parry of the ,english sword1 and who have no great love for the sweeping sabre of ,sadowa and ,sedan4 ,that doubt is the doubt whether ,russia1 as compared with ,prussia1 is sufficiently decent and democratic to be the ally of liberal and civilised powers4 ,i take first1 therefore1 this matter of civilisation4 ,it is vital in a discussion like this1 that we should make sure we are going by meanings and not by mere words4 ,it is not necessary in any argument to settle what a word means or ought to mean4 ,but it is necessary in every argument to settle what we propose to mean by the word4 ,so long as our opponent understands what is the thing of which we are talking1 it does not matter to the argument whether the word is or is not the one he would have chosen4 ,a soldier does not say ,we were ordered to go to ,mechlin2 but ,i would rather go to ,malines4 ,he may discuss the etymology and archology of the difference on the march2 but the point is that he knows where to go4 ,so long as we know what a given word is to mean in a given discussion1 it does not even matter if it means something else in some other and quite distinct discussion4 ,we have a perfect right to say that the width of a window comes to four feet2 even if we instantly and cheerfully change the subject to the larger mammals2 and say that an elephant has four feet4 ,the identity of the words does not matter1 because there is no doubt at all about the meanings2 because nobody is likely to think of an elephant as four foot long1 or of a window as having tusks and a curly trunk4 ,it is essential to emphasise this consciousness of the thing under discussion in connection with two or three words that are1 as it were1 the key-words of this war4 ,one of them is the word barbarian4 ,the ,prussians apply it to the ,russians3 the ,russians apply it to the ,prussians4 ,both1 ,i think1 really mean something that really exists1 name or no name4 ,both mean different things4 ,and if we ask what these different things are1 we shall understand why ,england and ,france prefer ,russia2 and consider ,prussia the really dangerous barbarian of the two4 ,to begin with1 it goes so much deeper even than atrocities2 of which1 in the past at least1 all the three ,empires of ,central ,europe have partaken pretty equally1 as they partook of ,poland4 ,an ,english writer1 seeking to avert the war by warnings against ,russian influence1 said that the flogged backs of ,polish women stood between us and the ,alliance4 ,but not long before1 the flogging of women by an ,austrian general led to that officer being thrashed in the streets of ,london by ,barclay and ,perkins' draymen4 ,and as for the third power1 the ,prussians1 it seems clear that they have treated ,belgian women in a style compared with which flogging might be called an official formality4 ,but1 as ,i say1 something much deeper than any such recrimination lies behind the use of the word on either side4 ,when the ,german ,emperor complains of our allying ourselves with a barbaric and half-oriental power he is not 7,i assure you7 shedding tears over the grave of ,kosciusko4 ,and when ,i say 7as ,i do most heartily7 that the ,german ,emperor is a barbarian1 ,i am not merely expressing any prejudices ,i may have against the profanation of churches or of children4 ,my countrymen and ,i mean a certain and intelligible thing when we call the ,prussians barbarians4 ,it is quite different from the thing attributed to ,russians2 and it could not possibly be attributed to ,russians4 ,it is very important that the neutral world should understand what this thing is4 ,if the ,german calls the ,russian barbarous he presumably means imperfectly civilised4 ,there is a certain path along which ,western nations have proceeded in recent times2 and it is tenable that ,russia has not proceeded so far as the others3 that she has less of the special modern system in science1 commerce1 machinery1 travel or political constitution4 ,the ,russ ploughs with an old plough2 he wears a wild beard2 he adores relics2 his life is as rude and hard as that of a subject of ,alfred the ,great4 ,therefore he is1 in the ,german sense1 a barbarian4 ,poor fellows like ,gorky and ,dostoieffsky have to form their own reflections on the scenery1 without the assistance of large quotations from ,schiller on garden seats2 or inscriptions directing them to pause and thank the ,all-,father for the finest view in ,hesse-,pumpernickel4 ,the ,russians1 having nothing but their faith1 their fields1 their great courage1 and their self-governing communes1 are quite cut off from what is called 7in the fashionable street in ,frankfort7 ,the ,true1 ,the ,beautiful and ,the ,good4 ,there is a real sense in which one can call such backwardness barbaric2 by comparison with the ,kaiserstrasse2 and in that sense it is true of ,russia4 ,now we1 the ,french and ,english1 do not mean this when we call the ,prussians barbarians4 ,if their cities soared higher than their flying ships1 if their trains travelled faster than their bullets1 we should still call them barbarians4 ,we should know exactly what we meant by it2 and we should know that it is true4 ,for we do not mean anything that is an imperfect civilisation by accident4 ,we mean something that is the enemy of civilisation by design4 ,we mean something that is wilfully at war with the principles by which human society has been made possible hitherto4 ,of course it must be partly civilised even to destroy civilisation4 ,such ruin could not be wrought by the savages that are merely undeveloped or inert4 ,you could not have even ,huns without horses2 or horses without horsemanship4 ,you could not have even ,danish pirates without ships1 or ships without seamanship4 ,this person1 whom ,i may call the ,positive ,barbarian1 must be rather more superficially up-to-date than what ,i may call the ,negative ,barbarian4 ,alaric was an officer in the ,roman legions3 but for all that he destroyed ,rome4 ,nobody supposes that ,eskimos could have done it at all neatly4 ,but 7in our meaning7 barbarism is not a matter of methods but of aims4 ,we say that these veneered vandals have the perfectly serious aim of destroying certain ideas which1 as they think1 the world has outgrown2 without which1 as we think1 the world will die4 ,it is essential that this perilous peculiarity in the ,pruss1 or ,positive ,barbarian1 should be seized4 ,he has what he fancies is a new idea2 and he is going to apply it to everybody4 ,as a fact it is simply a false generalisation2 but he is really trying to make it general4 ,this does not apply to the ,negative ,barbarian3 it does not apply to the ,russian or the ,servian1 even if they are barbarians4 ,if a ,russian peasant does beat his wife1 he does it because his fathers did it before him3 he is likely to beat less rather than more as the past fades away4 ,he does not think1 as the ,prussian would1 that he has made a new discovery in physiology in finding that a woman is weaker than a man4 ,if a ,servian does knife his rival without a word1 he does it because other ,servians have done it4 ,he may regard it even as piety1 but certainly not as progress4 ,he does not think1 as the ,prussian does1 that he founds a new school of horology by starting before the word ,go4 ,he does not think he is in advance of the world in militarism1 merely because he is behind it in morals4 ,no2 the danger of the ,pruss is that he is prepared to fight for old errors as if they were new truths4 ,he has somehow heard of certain shallow simplifications2 and imagines that we have never heard of them4 ,and1 as ,i have said1 his limited but very sincere lunacy concentrates chiefly in a desire to destroy two ideas1 the twin root ideas of rational society4 ,the first is the idea of record and promise3 the second is the idea of reciprocity4 ,it is plain that the promise1 or extension of responsibility through time1 is what chiefly distinguishes us1 ,i will not say from savages1 but from brutes and reptiles4 ,this was noted by the shrewdness of the ,old ,testament1 when it summed up the dark irresponsible enormity of ,leviathan in the words ,will he make a pact with thee8 ,the promise1 like the wheel1 is unknown in ,nature3 and is the first mark of man4 ,referring only to human civilisation it may be said with seriousness1 that in the beginning was the ,word4 ,the vow is to the man what the song is to the bird1 or the bark to the dog2 his voice1 whereby he is known4 ,just as a man who cannot keep an appointment is not fit even to fight a duel1 so the man who cannot keep an appointment with himself is not sane enough even for suicide4 ,it is not easy to mention anything on which the enormous apparatus of human life can be said to depend4 ,but if it depends on anything1 it is on this frail cord1 flung from the forgotten hills of yesterday to the invisible mountains of to-morrow4 ,on that solitary string hangs everything from ,armageddon to an almanac1 from a successful revolution to a return ticket4 ,on that solitary string the ,barbarian is hacking heavily1 with a sabre which is fortunately blunt4 ,any one can see this well enough1 merely by reading the last negotiations between ,london and ,berlin4 ,the ,prussians had made a new discovery in international politics3 that it may often be convenient to make a promise2 and yet curiously inconvenient to keep it4 ,they were charmed1 in their simple way1 with this scientific discovery1 and desired to communicate it to the world4 ,they therefore promised ,england a promise1 on condition that she broke a promise1 and on the implied condition that the new promise might be broken as easily as the old one4 ,to the profound astonishment of ,prussia1 this reasonable offer was refused6 ,i believe that the astonishment of ,prussia was quite sincere4 ,that is what ,i mean when ,i say that the ,barbarian is trying to cut away that cord of honesty and clear record1 on which hangs all that men have made4 ,the friends of the ,german cause have complained that ,asiatics and ,africans upon the very verge of savagery have been brought against them from ,india and ,algiers4 ,and1 in ordinary circumstances1 ,i should sympathise with such a complaint made by a ,european people4 ,but the circumstances are not ordinary4 ,here1 again1 the quite unique barbarism of ,prussia goes deeper than what we call barbarities4 ,about mere barbarities1 it is true1 the ,turco and the ,sikh would have a very good reply to the superior ,teuton4 ,the general and just reason for not using non-,european tribes against ,europeans is that given by ,chatham against the use of the ,red ,indian3 that such allies might do very diabolical things4 ,but the poor ,turco might not unreasonably ask1 after a weekend in ,belgium1 what more diabolical things he could do than the highly cultured ,germans were doing themselves4 ,nevertheless1 as ,i say1 the justification of any extra-,european aid goes deeper than any such details4 ,it rests upon the fact that even other civilisations1 even much lower civilisations1 even remote and repulsive civilisations1 depend as much as our own on this primary principle on which the super-morality of ,potsdam declares open ,war4 ,even savages promise things2 and respect those who keep their promises4 ,even ,orientals write things down3 and though they write them from right to left1 they know the importance of a scrap of paper4 ,many merchants will tell you that the word of the sinister and almost unhuman ,chinaman is often as good as his bond3 and it was amid palm trees and ,syrian pavilions that the great utterance opened the tabernacle1 to him that sweareth to his hurt and changeth not4 ,there is doubtless a dense labyrinth of duplicity in the ,east1 and perhaps more guile in the individual ,asiatic than in the individual ,german4 ,but we are not talking of the violations of human morality in various parts of the world4 ,we are talking about a new and inhuman morality1 which denies altogether the day of obligation4 ,the ,prussians have been told by their literary men that everything depends upon ,mood3 and by their politicians that all arrangements dissolve before necessity4 ,that is the importance of the ,german ,chancellor's phrase4 ,he did not allege some special excuse in the case of ,belgium1 which might make it seem an exception that proved the rule4 ,he distinctly argued1 as on a principle applicable to other cases1 that victory was a necessity and honour was a scrap of paper4 ,and it is evident that the half-educated ,prussian imagination really cannot get any further than this4 ,it cannot see that if everybody's action were entirely incalculable from hour to hour1 it would not only be the end of all promises1 but the end of all projects4 ,in not being able to see that1 the ,berlin philosopher is really on a lower mental level than the ,arab who respects the salt1 or the ,brahmin who preserves the caste4 ,and in this quarrel we have a right to come with scimitars as well as sabres1 with bows as well as rifles1 with assegai and tomahawk and boomerang1 because there is in all these at least a seed of civilisation that these intellectual anarchists would kill4 ,and if they should find us in our last stand girt with such strange swords and following unfamiliar ensigns1 and ask us for what we fight in so singular a company1 we shall know what to reply3 ,we fight for the trust and for the tryst2 for fixed memories and the possible meeting of men2 for all that makes life anything but an uncontrollable nightmare4 ,we fight for the long arm of honour and remembrance2 for all that can lift a man above the quicksands of his moods1 and give him the mastery of time4 ,,ii ,,the ,,refusal ,,of ,,reciprocity ,in the last summary ,i suggested that ,barbarism1 as we mean it1 is not mere ignorance or even mere cruelty4 ,it has a more precise sense1 and means militant hostility to certain necessary human ideas4 ,i took the case of the vow or the contract1 which ,prussian intellectualism would destroy4 ,i urged that the ,prussian is a spiritual ,barbarian1 because he is not bound by his own past1 any more than a man in a dream4 ,he avows that when he promised to respect a frontier on ,monday1 he did not foresee what he calls the necessity of not respecting it on ,tuesday4 ,in short1 he is like a child1 who at the end of all reasonable explanations and reminders of admitted arrangements1 has no answer except ,but ,i want to4 ,there is another idea in human arrangements so fundamental as to be forgotten2 but now for the first time denied4 ,it may be called the idea of reciprocity2 or1 in better ,english1 of give and take4 ,the ,prussian appears to be quite intellectually incapable of this thought4 ,he cannot1 ,i think1 conceive the idea that is the foundation of all comedy2 that1 in the eyes of the other man1 he is only the other man4 ,and if we carry this clue through the institutions of ,prussianised ,germany1 we shall find how curiously his mind has been limited in the matter4 ,the ,german differs from other patriots in the inability to understand patriotism4 ,other ,european peoples pity the ,poles or the ,welsh for their violated borders2 but ,germans pity only themselves4 ,they might take forcible possession of the ,severn or the ,danube1 of the ,thames or the ,tiber1 of the ,garry or the ,garonne--and they would still be singing sadly about how fast and true stands the watch on ,rhine2 and what a shame it would be if any one took their own little river away from them4 ,that is what ,i mean by not being reciprocal3 and you will find it in all that they do3 as in all that is done by savages4 ,here1 again1 it is very necessary to avoid confusing this soul of the savage with mere savagery in the sense of brutality or butchery2 in which the ,greeks1 the ,french and all the most civilised nations have indulged in hours of abnormal panic or revenge4 ,accusations of cruelty are generally mutual4 ,but it is the point about the ,prussian that with him nothing is mutual4 ,the definition of the true savage does not concern itself even with how much more he hurts strangers or captives than do the other tribes of men4 ,the definition of the true savage is that he laughs when he hurts you2 and howls when you hurt him4 ,this extraordinary inequality in the mind is in every act and word that comes from ,berlin4 ,for instance1 no man of the world believes all he sees in the newspapers2 and no journalist believes a quarter of it4 ,we should1 therefore1 be quite ready in the ordinary way to take a great deal off the tales of ,german atrocities2 to doubt this story or deny that4 ,but there is one thing that we cannot doubt or deny3 the seal and authority of the ,emperor4 ,in the ,imperial proclamation the fact that certain frightful things have been done is admitted2 and justified on the ground of their frightfulness4 ,it was a military necessity to terrify the peaceful populations with something that was not civilised1 something that was hardly human4 ,very well4 ,that is an intelligible policy3 and in that sense an intelligible argument4 ,an army endangered by foreigners may do the most frightful things4 ,but then we turn the next page of the ,kaiser's public diary1 and we find him writing to the ,president of the ,united ,states1 to complain that the ,english are using ,dum-dum bullets and violating various regulations of the ,hague ,conference4 ,i pass for the present the question of whether there is a word of truth in these charges4 ,i am content to gaze rapturously at the blinking eyes of the ,true1 or ,positive1 ,barbarian4 ,i suppose he would be quite puzzled if we said that violating the ,hague ,conference was a military necessity to us2 or that the rules of the ,conference were only a scrap of paper4 ,he would be quite pained if we said that ,dum-dum bullets1 by their very frightfulness1 would be very useful to keep conquered ,germans in order4 ,do what he will1 he cannot get outside the idea that he1 because he is he and not you1 is free to break the law2 and also to appeal to the law4 ,it is said that the ,prussian officers play at a game called ,kriegsspiel1 or the ,war ,game4 ,but in truth they could not play at any game2 for the essence of every game is that the rules are the same on both sides4 ,but taking every ,german institution in turn1 the case is the same2 and it is not a case of mere bloodshed or military bravado4 ,the duel1 for example1 can legitimately be called a barbaric thing2 but the word is here used in another sense4 ,there are duels in ,germany2 but so there are in ,france1 ,italy1 ,belgium1 and ,spain2 indeed1 there are duels wherever there are dentists1 newspapers1 ,turkish baths1 time-tables1 and all the curses of civilisation2 except in ,england and a corner of ,america4 ,you may happen to regard the duel as a historic relic of the more barbaric ,states on which these modern ,states were built4 ,it might equally well be maintained that the duel is everywhere the sign of high civilisation2 being the sign of its more delicate sense of honour1 its more vulnerable vanity1 or its greater dread of social disrepute4 ,but whichever of the two views you take1 you must concede that the essence of the duel is an armed equality4 ,i should not1 therefore1 apply the word barbaric1 as ,i am using it1 to the duels of ,german officers1 or even to the broadsword combats that are conventional among the ,german students4 ,i do not see why a young ,prussian should not have scars all over his face if he likes them2 nay1 they are often the redeeming points of interest on an otherwise somewhat unenlightening countenance4 ,the duel may be defended2 the sham duel may be defended4 ,what cannot be defended is something really peculiar to ,prussia1 of which we hear numberless stories1 some of them certainly true4 ,it might be called the one-sided duel4 ,i mean the idea that there is some sort of dignity in drawing the sword upon a man who has not got a sword2 a waiter1 or a shop assistant1 or even a schoolboy4 ,one of the officers of the ,kaiser in the affair at ,saberne was found industriously hacking at a cripple4 ,in all these matters ,i would avoid sentiment4 ,we must not lose our tempers at the mere cruelty of the thing2 but pursue the strict psychological distinction4 ,others besides ,german soldiers have slain the defenceless1 for loot or lust or private malice1 like any other murderer4 ,the point is that nowhere else but in ,prussian ,germany is any theory of honour mixed up with such things2 any more than with poisoning or picking pockets4 ,no ,french1 ,english1 ,italian or ,american gentleman would think he had in some way cleared his own character by sticking his sabre through some ridiculous greengrocer who had nothing in his hand but a cucumber4 ,it would seem as if the word which is translated from the ,german as honour must really mean something quite different in ,german4 ,it seems to mean something more like what we should call prestige4 ,the fundamental fact1 however1 is the absence of the reciprocal idea4 ,the ,prussian is not sufficiently civilised for the duel4 ,even when he crosses swords with us his thoughts are not as our thoughts2 when we both glorify war1 we are glorifying different things4 ,our medals are wrought like his1 but they do not mean the same thing2 our regiments are cheered as his are1 but the thought in the heart is not the same2 the ,iron ,cross is on the bosom of his king1 but it is not the sign of our ,god4 ,for we1 alas1 follow our ,god with many relapses and self-contradictions1 but he follows his very consistently4 ,through all the things that we have examined1 the view of national boundaries1 the view of military methods1 the view of personal honour and self-defence1 there runs in their case something of an atrocious simplicity2 something too simple for us to understand3 the idea that glory consists in holding the steel1 and not in facing it4 ,if further examples were necessary1 it would be easy to give hundreds of them4 ,let us leave1 for the moment1 the relation between man and man in the thing called the duel4 ,let us take the relation between man and woman1 in that immortal duel which we call a marriage4 ,here again we shall find that other ,christian civilisations aim at some kind of equality2 even if the balance be irrational or dangerous4 ,thus1 the two extremes of the treatment of women might be represented by what are called the respectable classes in ,america and in ,france4 ,in ,america they choose the risk of comradeship2 in ,france the compensation of courtesy4 ,in ,america it is practically possible for any young gentleman to take any young lady for what he calls 7,i deeply regret to say7 a joy-ride2 but at least the man goes with the woman as much as the woman with the man4 ,in ,france the young woman is protected like a nun while she is unmarried2 but when she is a mother she is really a holy woman2 and when she is a grandmother she is a holy terror4 ,by both extremes the woman gets something back out of life4 ,there is only one place where she gets little or nothing back2 and that is the north of ,germany4 ,france and ,america aim alike at equality2 ,america by similarity2 ,france by dissimilarity4 ,but ,north ,germany does definitely aim at inequality4 ,the woman stands up1 with no more irritation than a butler2 the man sits down1 with no more embarrassment than a guest4 ,this is the cool affirmation of inferiority1 as in the case of the sabre and the tradesman4 ,thou goest with women2 forget not thy whip1 said ,nietzsche4 ,it will be observed that he does not say poker2 which might come more naturally to the mind of a more common or ,christian wife-beater4 ,but then a poker is a part of domesticity2 and might be used by the wife as well as the husband4 ,in fact1 it often is4 ,the sword and the whip are the weapons of a privileged caste4 ,pass from the closest of all differences1 that between husband and wife1 to the most distant of all differences1 that of the remote and unrelated races who have seldom seen each other's faces1 and never been tinged with each other's blood4 ,here we still find the same unvarying ,prussian principle4 ,any ,european might feel a genuine fear of the ,yellow ,peril2 and many ,englishmen1 ,frenchmen1 and ,russians have felt and expressed it4 ,many might say1 and have said1 that the ,heathen ,chinee is very heathen indeed2 that if he ever advances against us he will trample and torture and utterly destroy1 in a way that ,eastern people do1 but ,western people do not4 ,nor do ,i doubt the ,german ,emperor's sincerity when he sought to point out to us how abnormal and abominable such a nightmare campaign would be1 supposing that it could ever come4 ,but now comes the comic irony2 which never fails to follow on the attempt of the ,prussian to be philosophic4 ,for the ,kaiser1 after explaining to his troops how important it was to avoid ,eastern ,barbarism1 instantly commanded them to become ,eastern ,barbarians4 ,he told them1 in so many words1 to be ,huns3 and leave nothing living or standing behind them4 ,in fact1 he frankly offered a new army corps of aboriginal ,tartars to the ,far ,east1 within such time as it may take a bewildered ,hanoverian to turn into a ,tartar4 ,any one who has the painful habit of personal thought1 will perceive here at once the non-reciprocal principle again4 ,boiled down to its bones of logic1 it means simply this3 ,i am a ,german and you are a ,chinaman4 ,therefore ,i1 being a ,german1 have a right to be a ,chinaman4 ,but you have no right to be a ,chinaman2 because you are only a ,chinaman4 ,this is probably the highest point to which the ,german culture has risen4 ,the principle here neglected1 which may be called ,mutuality by those who misunderstand and dislike the word ,equality1 does not offer so clear a distinction between the ,prussian and the other peoples as did the first ,prussian principle of an infinite and destructive opportunism2 or1 in other words1 the principle of being unprincipled4 ,nor upon this second can one take up so obvious a position touching the other civilisations or semi-civilisations of the world4 ,some idea of oath and bond there is in the rudest tribes1 in the darkest continents4 ,but it might be maintained1 of the more delicate and imaginative element of reciprocity1 that a cannibal in ,borneo understands it almost as little as a professor in ,berlin4 ,a narrow and one-sided seriousness is the fault of barbarians all over the world4 ,this may have been the meaning1 for aught ,i know1 of the one eye of the ,cyclops3 that the ,barbarian cannot see round things or look at them from two points of view2 and thus becomes a blind beast and an eater of men4 ,certainly there can be no better summary of the savage than this1 which as we have seen1 unfits him for the duel4 ,he is the man who cannot love--no1 nor even hate--his neighbour as himself4 ,but this quality in ,prussia does have one effect which has reference to the same question of the lower civilisations4 ,it disposes once and for all at least of the civilising mission of ,germany4 ,evidently the ,germans are the last people in the world to be trusted with the task4 ,they are as shortsighted morally as physically4 ,what is their sophism of necessity but an inability to imagine to-morrow morning8 ,what is their non-reciprocity but an inability to imagine1 not a god or devil1 but merely another man8 ,are these to judge mankind8 ,men of two tribes in ,africa not only know that they are all men1 but can understand that they are all black men4 ,in this they are quite seriously in advance of the intellectual ,prussian2 who cannot be got to see that we are all white men4 ,the ordinary eye is unable to perceive in the ,north-,east ,teuton anything that marks him out especially from the more colourless classes of the rest of ,aryan mankind4 ,he is simply a white man1 with a tendency to the grey or the drab4 ,yet he will explain1 in serious official documents1 that the difference between him and us is a difference between the master-race and the inferior-race4 ,the collapse of ,german philosophy always occurs at the beginning rather than the end of an argument2 and the difficulty here is that there is no way of testing which is a master-race except by asking which is your own race4 ,if you cannot find out 7as is usually the case7 you fall back on the absurd occupation of writing history about pre-historic times4 ,but ,i suggest quite seriously that if the ,germans can give their philosophy to the ,hottentots1 there is no reason why they should not give their sense of superiority to the ,hottentots4 ,if they can see such fine shades between the ,goth and the ,gaul1 there is no reason why similar shades should not lift the savage above other savages2 why any ,ojibway should not discover that he is one tint redder than the ,dacotahs2 or any nigger in the ,cameroons say he is not so black as he is painted4 ,for this principle of a quite unproved racial supremacy is the last and worst of the refusals of reciprocity4 ,the ,prussian calls all men to admire the beauty of his large blue eyes4 ,if they do1 it is because they have inferior eyes3 if they don't1 it is because they have no eyes4 ,wherever the most miserable remnant of our race1 astray and dried up in deserts1 or buried forever under the fall of bad civilisations1 has some feeble memory that men are men1 that bargains are bargains1 that there are two sides to a question1 or even that it takes two to make a quarrel--that remnant has the right to resist the ,new ,culture1 to the knife and club and the splintered stone4 ,for the ,prussian begins all his culture by that act which is the destruction of all creative thought and constructive action4 ,he breaks that mirror in the mind1 in which a man can see the face of his friend or foe4 ,,iii ,,the ,,appetite ,,of ,,tyranny ,the ,german ,emperor has reproached this country with allying itself with barbaric and semi-oriental power4 ,we have already considered in what sense we use the word barbaric3 it is in the sense of one who is hostile to civilisation1 not one who is insufficient in it4 ,but when we pass from the idea of the barbaric to the idea of the oriental1 the case is even more curious4 ,there is nothing particularly ,tartar in ,russian affairs1 except the fact that ,russia expelled the ,tartars4 ,the ,eastern invader occupied and crushed the country for many years2 but that is equally true of ,greece1 of ,spain and even of ,austria4 ,if ,russia has suffered from the ,east she has suffered in order to resist it3 and it is rather hard that the very miracle of her escape should make a mystery about her origin4 ,jonah may or may not have been three days inside a fish1 but that does not make him a merman4 ,and in all the other cases of ,european nations who escaped the monstrous captivity1 we do admit the purity and continuity of the ,european type4 ,we consider the old ,eastern rule as a wound1 but not as a stain4 ,copper-coloured men out of ,africa overruled for centuries the religion and patriotism of ,spaniards4 ,yet ,i have never heard that ,don ,quixote was an ,african fable on the lines of ,uncle ,remus4 ,i have never heard that the heavy black in the pictures of ,velasquez was due to a negro ancestry4 ,in the case of ,spain1 which is close to us1 we can recognise the resurrection of a ,christian and cultured nation after its age of bondage4 ,but ,russia is rather remote2 and those to whom nations are but names in newspapers can really fancy1 like ,mr4 ,baring's friend1 that all ,russian churches are mosques4 ,yet the land of ,turgenev is not a wilderness of fakirs2 and even the fanatical ,russian is as proud of being different from the ,mongol1 as the fanatical ,spaniard was proud of being different from the ,moor4 ,the town of ,reading1 as it exists1 offers few opportunities for piracy on the high seas3 yet it was the camp of the pirates in ,alfred's day4 ,i should think it hard to call the people of ,berkshire half-,danish1 merely because they drove out the ,danes4 ,in short1 some temporary submergence under the savage flood was the fate of many of the most civilised states of ,christendom2 and it is quite ridiculous to argue that ,russia1 which wrestled hardest1 must have recovered least4 ,everywhere1 doubtless1 the ,east spread a sort of enamel over the conquered countries1 but everywhere the enamel cracked4 ,actual history1 in fact1 is exactly opposite to the cheap proverb invented against the ,muscovite4 ,it is not true to say ,scratch a ,russian and you find a ,tartar4 ,in the darkest hour of the barbaric dominion it was truer to say1 ,scratch a ,tartar and you find a ,russian4 ,it was the civilisation that survived under all the barbarism4 ,this vital romance of ,russia1 this revolution against ,asia1 can be proved in pure fact3 not only from the almost superhuman activity of ,russia during the struggle1 but also 7which is much rarer as human history goes7 by her quite consistent conduct since4 ,she is the only great nation which has really expelled the ,mongol from her country1 and continued to protest against the presence of the ,mongol in her continent4 ,knowing what he had been in ,russia1 she knew what he would be in ,europe4 ,in this she pursued a logical line of thought which was1 if anything1 too unsympathetic with the energies and religions of the ,east4 ,every other country1 one may say1 has been an ally of the ,turk2 that is1 of the ,mongol and the ,moslem4 ,the ,french played them as pieces against ,austria2 the ,english warmly supported them under the ,palmerston rgime2 even the young ,italians sent troops to the ,crimea2 and of ,prussia and her ,austrian vassal it is nowadays needless to speak4 ,for good or evil1 it is the fact of history that ,russia is the only ,power in ,europe that has never supported the ,crescent against the ,cross4 ,that1 doubtless1 will appear an unimportant matter2 but it may become important under certain peculiar conditions4 ,suppose1 for the sake of argument1 that there were a powerful prince in ,europe who had gone ostentatiously out of his way to pay reverence to the remains of the ,tartar1 ,mongol and ,moslem1 left as an outpost in ,europe4 ,suppose there were a ,christian ,emperor who could not even go to the tomb of the ,crucified1 without pausing to congratulate the last and living crucifier4 ,if there were an ,emperor who gave guns and guides and maps and drill instructors to defend the remains of the ,mongol in ,christendom1 what should we say to him8 ,i think at least we might ask him what he meant by his impudence1 when he talked about supporting a semi-oriental power4 ,that we support a semi-oriental power1 we deny4 ,that he has supported an entirely oriental power cannot be denied--no1 not even by the man who did it4 ,but here is to be noted the essential difference between ,russia and ,prussia2 especially by those who use the ordinary ,liberal arguments against the latter4 ,russia has a policy which she pursues1 if you will1 through evil and good2 but at least so as to produce good as well as evil4 ,let it be granted that the policy has made her oppressive to the ,finns and the ,poles--though the ,russian ,poles feel far less oppressed than do the ,prussian ,poles4 ,but it is a mere historic fact1 that if ,russia has been a despot to some small nations1 she has been a deliverer to others4 ,she did1 so far as in her lay1 emancipate the ,servians or the ,montenegrins4 ,but whom did ,prussia ever emancipate--even by accident8 ,it is indeed somewhat extraordinary that in the perpetual permutations of international politics the ,hohenzollerns have never gone astray into the path of enlightenment4 ,they have been in alliance with almost everybody off and on2 with ,france1 with ,england1 with ,austria1 with ,russia4 ,can any one candidly say that they have left on any one of these people the faintest impress of progress or liberation8 ,prussia was the enemy of the ,french ,monarchy2 but a worse enemy of the ,french ,revolution4 ,prussia had been an enemy of the ,czar2 but she was a worse enemy of the ,duma4 ,prussia totally disregarded ,austrian rights2 but she is to-day quite ready to inflict ,austrian wrongs4 ,this is the strong particular difference between the one empire and the other4 ,russia is pursuing certain intelligible and sincere ends1 which to her at least are ideals1 and for which1 therefore1 she will make sacrifices and will protect the weak4 ,but the ,north ,german soldier is a sort of abstract tyrant1 everywhere and always on the side of materialistic tyranny4 ,this ,teuton in uniform has been found in strange places2 shooting farmers before ,saratoga and flogging soldiers in ,surrey1 hanging niggers in ,africa and raping girls in ,wicklow2 but never1 by some mysterious fatality1 lending a hand to the freeing of a single city or the independence of one solitary flag4 ,wherever scorn and prosperous oppression are1 there is the ,prussian2 unconsciously consistent1 instinctively restrictive1 innocently evil2 following darkness like a dream4 ,suppose we heard of a person 7gifted with some longevity7 who had helped ,alva to persecute ,dutch ,protestants1 then helped ,cromwell to persecute ,irish ,catholics1 and then helped ,claverhouse to persecute ,scotch ,puritans1 we should find it rather easier to call him a persecutor than to call him a ,protestant or a ,catholic4 ,curiously enough this is actually the position in which the ,prussian stands in ,europe4 ,no argument can alter the fact that in three converging and conclusive cases he has been on the side of three distinct rulers of different religions1 who had nothing whatever in common except that they were ruling oppressively4 ,in these three ,governments1 taken separately1 one can see something excusable or at least human4 ,when the ,kaiser encouraged the ,russian rulers to crush the ,revolution1 the ,russian rulers undoubtedly believed they were wrestling with an inferno of atheism and anarchy4 ,a ,socialist of the ordinary ,english kind cried out upon me when ,i spoke of ,stolypin1 and said he was chiefly known by the halter called ,stolypin's ,necktie4 ,as a fact1 there were many other things interesting about ,stolypin besides his necktie3 his policy of peasant proprietorship1 his extraordinary personal courage1 and certainly none more interesting than that movement in his death agony1 when he made the sign of the cross towards the ,czar1 as the crown and captain of his ,christianity4 ,but the ,kaiser does not regard the ,czar as the captain of ,christianity4 ,far from it4 ,what he supported in ,stolypin was the necktie and nothing but the necktie3 the gallows and not the cross4 ,the ,russian ruler did believe that the ,orthodox ,church was orthodox4 ,the ,austrian ,archduke did really desire to make the ,catholic ,church catholic4 ,he did really believe that he was being ,pro-,catholic in being ,pro-,austrian4 ,but the ,kaiser cannot be ,pro-,catholic1 and therefore cannot have been really ,pro-,austrian1 he was simply and solely ,anti-,servian4 ,nay1 even in the cruel and sterile strength of ,turkey1 any one with imagination can see something of the tragedy and therefore of the tenderness of true belief4 ,the worst that can be said of the ,moslems is1 as the poet put it1 they offered to man the choice of the ,koran or the sword4 ,the best that can be said for the ,german is that he does not care about the ,koran1 but is satisfied if he can have the sword4 ,and for me1 ,i confess1 even the sins of these three other striving empires take on1 in comparison1 something that is sorrowful and dignified3 and ,i feel they do not deserve that this little ,lutheran lounger should patronise all that is evil in them1 while ignoring all that is good4 ,he is not ,catholic1 he is not ,orthodox1 he is not ,mahomedan4 ,he is merely an old gentleman who wishes to share the crime though he cannot share the creed4 ,he desires to be a persecutor by the pang without the palm4 ,so strongly do all the instincts of the ,prussian drive against liberty1 that he would rather oppress other people's subjects than think of anybody going without the benefits of oppression4 ,he is a sort of disinterested despot4 ,he is as disinterested as the devil who is ready to do any one's dirty work4 ,this would seem obviously fantastic were it not supported by solid facts which cannot be explained otherwise4 ,indeed it would be inconceivable if we were thinking of a whole people1 consisting of free and varied individuals4 ,but in ,prussia the governing class is really a governing class3 and a very few people are needed to think along these lines to make all the other people act along them4 ,and the paradox of ,prussia is this3 that while its princes and nobles have no other aim on this earth but to destroy democracy wherever it shows itself1 they have contrived to get themselves trusted1 not as wardens of the past but as forerunners of the future4 ,even they cannot believe that their theory is popular1 but they do believe that it is progressive4 ,here again we find the spiritual chasm between the two monarchies in question4 ,the ,russian institutions are1 in many cases1 really left in the rear of the ,russian people1 and many of the ,russian people know it4 ,but the ,prussian institutions are supposed to be in advance of the ,prussian people1 and most of the ,prussian people believe it4 ,it is thus much easier for the warlords to go everywhere and impose a hopeless slavery upon every one1 for they have already imposed a sort of hopeful slavery on their own simple race4 ,and when men shall speak to us of the hoary iniquities of ,russia and of how antiquated is the ,russian system1 we shall answer ,yes2 that is the superiority of ,russia4 ,their institutions are part of their history1 whether as relics or fossils4 ,their abuses have really been uses3 that is to say1 they have been used up4 ,if they have old engines of terror or torment1 they may fall to pieces from mere rust1 like an old coat of armour4 ,but in the case of the ,prussian tyranny1 if it be tyranny at all1 it is the whole point of its claim that it is not antiquated1 but just going to begin1 like the showman4 ,prussia has a whole thriving factory of thumbscrews1 a whole humming workshop of wheels and racks1 of the newest and neatest pattern1 with which to win back ,europe to the ,reaction 444 infandum renovare dolorem4 ,and if we wish to test the truth of this1 it can be done by the same method which showed us that ,russia1 if her race or religion could sometimes make her an invader and an oppressor1 could also be made an emancipator and a knight errant4 ,in the same way1 if the ,russian institutions are old-fashioned1 they honestly exhibit the good as well as the bad that can be found in old-fashioned things4 ,in their police system they have an inequality which is against our ideas of law4 ,but in their commune system they have an equality that is older than law itself4 ,even when they flogged each other like barbarians1 they called upon each other by their ,christian names like children4 ,at their worst they retained all the best of a rude society4 ,at their best1 they are simply good1 like good children or good nuns4 ,but in ,prussia all that is best in the civilised machinery is put at the service of all that is worst in the barbaric mind4 ,here again the ,prussian has no accidental merits1 none of those lucky survivals1 none of those late repentances1 which make the patchwork glory of ,russia4 ,here all is sharpened to a point and pointed to a purpose and that purpose1 if words and acts have any meaning at all1 is the destruction of liberty throughout the world4 ,,iv ,,the ,,escape ,,of ,,folly ,in considering the ,prussian point of view we have been considering what seems to be mainly a mental limitation3 a kind of knot in the brain4 ,towards the problem of ,slav population1 of ,english colonisation1 of ,french armies and reinforcements1 it shows the same strange philosophic sulks4 ,so far as ,i can follow it1 it seems to amount to saying ,it is very wrong that you should be superior to me1 because ,i am superior to you4 ,the spokesmen of this system seem to have a curious capacity for concentrating this entanglement or contradiction1 sometimes into a single paragraph1 or even a single sentence4 ,i have already referred to the ,german ,emperor's celebrated suggestion that in order to avert the peril of ,hunnishness we should all become ,huns4 ,a much stronger instance is his more recent order to his troops touching the war in ,northern ,france4 ,as most people know1 his words ran ,it is my ,royal and ,imperial command that you concentrate your energies1 for the immediate present1 upon one single purpose1 and that is that you address all your skill and all the valour of my soldiers to exterminate first the treacherous ,english and to walk over ,general ,french's contemptible little ,army4 ,the rudeness of the remark an ,englishman can afford to pass over2 what ,i am interested in is the mentality2 the train of thought that can manage to entangle itself even in so brief a space4 ,if ,french's little ,army is contemptible1 it would seem clear that all the skill and valour of the ,german ,army had better not be concentrated on it1 but on the larger and less contemptible allies4 ,if all the skill and valour of the ,german ,army are concentrated on it1 it is not being treated as contemptible4 ,but the ,prussian rhetorician had two incompatible sentiments in his mind2 and he insisted on saying them both at once4 ,he wanted to think of an ,english ,army as a small thing2 but he also wanted to think of an ,english defeat as a big thing4 ,he wanted to exult1 at the same moment1 in the utter weakness of the ,british in their attack2 and the supreme skill and valour of the ,germans in repelling such an attack4 ,somehow it must be made a common and obvious collapse for ,england2 and yet a daring and unexpected triumph for ,germany4 ,in trying to express these contradictory conceptions simultaneously1 he got rather mixed4 ,therefore he bade ,germania fill all her vales and mountains with the dying agonies of this almost invisible earwig2 and let the impure blood of this cockroach redden the ,rhine down to the sea4 ,but it would be unfair to base the criticism on the utterance of any accidental and hereditary prince3 and it is quite equally clear in the case of the philosophers who have been held up to us1 even in ,england1 as the very prophets of progress4 ,and in nothing is it shown more sharply than in the curious confused talk about ,race and especially about the ,teutonic ,race4 ,professor ,harnack and similar people are reproaching us1 ,i understand1 for having broken the bond of ,teutonism3 a bond which the ,prussians have strictly observed both in breach and observance4 ,we note it in their open annexation of lands wholly inhabited by negroes1 such as ,denmark4 ,we note it equally in their instant and joyful recognition of the flaxen hair and light blue eyes of the ,turks4 ,but it is still the abstract principle of ,professor ,harnack which interests me most2 and in following it ,i have the same complexity of enquiry1 but the same simplicity of result4 ,comparing the ,professor's concern about ,teutonism with his unconcern about ,belgium1 ,i can only reach the following result3 ,a man need not keep a promise he has made4 ,but a man must keep a promise he has not made4 ,there certainly was a treaty binding ,britain to ,belgium2 if it was only a scrap of paper4 ,if there was any treaty binding ,britain to ,teutonism it is1 to say the least of it1 a lost scrap of paper3 almost what one might call a scrap of waste-paper4 ,here again the pendants under consideration exhibit the illogical perversity that makes the brain reel4 ,there is obligation and there is no obligation3 sometimes it appears that ,germany and ,england must keep faith with each other2 sometimes that ,germany need not keep faith with anybody and anything2 sometimes that we alone among ,european peoples are almost entitled to be ,germans2 sometimes that beside us ,russians and ,frenchmen almost rise to a ,germanic loveliness of character4 ,but through all there is1 hazy but not hypocritical1 this sense of some common ,teutonism4 ,professor ,haeckel1 another of the witnesses raised up against us1 attained to some celebrity at one time through proving the remarkable resemblance between two different things by printing duplicate pictures of the same thing4 ,professor ,haeckel's contribution to biology1 in this case1 was exactly like ,professor ,harnack's contribution to ethnology4 ,professor ,harnack knows what a ,german is like4 ,when he wants to imagine what an ,englishman is like1 he simply photographs the same ,german over again4 ,in both cases there is probably sincerity as well as simplicity4 ,haeckel was so certain that the species illustrated in embryo really are closely related and linked up1 that it seemed to him a small thing to simplify it by mere repetition4 ,harnack is so certain that the ,german and ,englishman are almost alike1 that he really risks the generalisation that they are exactly alike4 ,he photographs1 so to speak1 the same fair and foolish face twice over2 and calls it a remarkable resemblance between cousins4 ,thus he can prove the existence of ,teutonism just about as conclusively as ,haeckel has proved the more tenable proposition of the non-existence of ,god4 ,now the ,german and the ,englishman are not in the least alike--except in the sense that neither of them are negroes4 ,they are1 in everything good and evil1 more unlike than any other two men we can take at random from the great ,european family4 ,they are opposite from the roots of their history1 nay1 of their geography4 ,it is an understatement to call ,britain insular4 ,britain is not only an island1 but an island slashed by the sea till it nearly splits into three islands2 and even the ,midlands can almost smell the salt4 ,germany is a powerful1 beautiful and fertile inland country1 which can only find the sea by one or two twisted and narrow paths1 as people find a subterranean lake4 ,thus the ,british ,navy is really national because it is natural2 it has co-hered out of hundreds of accidental adventures of ships and shipmen before ,chaucer's time and after it4 ,but the ,german ,navy is an artificial thing2 as artificial as a constructed ,alp would be in ,england4 ,william ,,ii has simply copied the ,british ,navy as ,frederick ,,ii copied the ,french ,army3 and this ,japanese or anti-like assiduity in imitation is one of the hundred qualities which the ,germans have and the ,english markedly have not4 ,there are other ,german superiorities which are very much superior4 ,the one or two really jolly things that the ,germans have got are precisely the things which the ,english haven't got3 notably a real habit of popular music and of the ancient songs of the people1 not merely spreading from the towns or caught from the professionals4 ,in this the ,germans rather resemble the ,welsh3 though heaven knows what becomes of ,teutonism if they do4 ,but the difference between the ,germans and the ,english goes deeper than all these signs of it2 they differ more than any other two ,europeans in the normal posture of the mind4 ,above all1 they differ in what is the most ,english of all ,english traits2 that shame which the ,french may be right in calling the bad shame2 for it is certainly mixed up with pride and suspicion1 the upshot of which we call shyness4 ,even an ,englishman's rudeness is often rooted in his being embarrassed4 ,but a ,german's rudeness is rooted in his never being embarrassed4 ,he eats and makes love noisily4 ,he never feels a speech or a song or a sermon or a large meal to be what the ,english call out of place in particular circumstances4 ,when ,germans are patriotic and religious they have no reactions against patriotism and religion as have the ,english and the ,french4 ,nay1 the mistake of ,germany in the modern disaster largely arose from the facts that she thought ,england was simple when ,england is very subtle4 ,she thought that because our politics have become largely financial that they had become wholly financial2 that because our aristocrats had become pretty cynical that they had become entirely corrupt4 ,they could not seize the subtlety by which a rather used-up ,english gentleman might sell a coronet when he would not sell a fortress2 might lower the public standards and yet refuse to lower the flag4 ,in short1 the ,germans are quite sure that they understand us entirely1 because they do not understand us at all4 ,possibly if they began to understand us they might hate us even more3 but ,i would rather be hated for some small but real reason than pursued with love on account of all kinds of qualities which ,i do not possess and which ,i do not desire4 ,and when the ,germans get their first genuine glimpse of what modern ,england is like they will discover that ,england has a very broken1 belated and inadequate sense of having an obligation to ,europe1 but no sort of sense whatever of having any obligation to ,teutonism4 ,this is the last and strongest of the ,prussian qualities we have here considered4 ,there is in stupidity of this sort a strange slippery strength3 because it can be not only outside rules but outside reason4 ,the man who really cannot see that he is contradicting himself has a great advantage in controversy2 though the advantage breaks down when he tries to reduce it to simple addition1 to chess1 or to the game called war4 ,it is the same about the stupidity of the one-sided kinship4 ,the drunkard who is quite certain that a total stranger is his long-lost brother1 has a greater advantage until it comes to matters of detail4 ,we must have chaos within said ,nietzsche1 that we may give birth to a dancing star4 ,in these slight notes ,i have suggested the principal strong points of the ,prussian character4 ,a failure in honour which almost amounts to a failure in memory3 an egomania that is honestly blind to the fact that the other party is an ego2 and1 above all1 an actual itch for tyranny and interference1 the devil which everywhere torments the idle and the proud4 ,to these must be added a certain mental shapelessness which can expand or contract without reference to reason or record2 a potential infinity of excuses4 ,if the ,english had been on the ,german side1 the ,german professors would have noted what irresistible energies had evolved the ,teutons4 ,as the ,english are on the other side1 the ,german professors will say that these ,teutons were not sufficiently evolved4 ,or they will say that they were just sufficiently evolved to show that they were not ,teutons4 ,probably they will say both4 ,but the truth is that all that they call evolution should rather be called evasion4 ,they tell us they are opening windows of enlightenment and doors of progress4 ,the truth is that they are breaking up the whole house of the human intellect1 that they may abscond in any direction4 ,there is an ominous and almost monstrous parallel between the position of their over-rated philosophers and of their comparatively under-rated soldiers4 ,for what their professors call roads of progress are really routes of escape4 ,,letters ,,to ,,an ,,old ,,garibaldian ,italy1 twice hast thou spoken2 and time is athirst for the third4 --,,swinburne4 ,my ,dear ------ ,it is a long time since we met2 and ,i fear these letters may never reach you4 ,but in these violent times ,i remember with a curious vividness how you brandished a paintbrush about your easel when ,i was a boy2 and how it thrilled me to think that you had so brandished a bayonet against the ,teutons--,i hope with the same precision and happy results4 ,round about that period1 the very pigments seemed to have some sort of picturesque connection with your national story4 ,there seemed to be something gorgeous and terrible about ,venetian ,red2 and something quite catastrophic about ,burnt ,sienna4 ,but somehow or other1 when ,i saw in the street yesterday the colours on your flag1 it reminded me of the colours on your palette4 ,you need not fear that ,i shall try to entangle you or your countrymen in the matters which it is for ,italians alone to decide4 ,you know the perils of either course much better than ,i do4 ,italy1 most assuredly1 has no need to prove her courage4 ,she has risked everything in standing out that she could risk by coming in4 ,the proclamations and press of ,germany make it plain that the ,germans have risen to a height of sensibility hardly to be distinguished from madness4 ,supposing the nightmare of a ,prussian victory1 they will revenge themselves on things more remote than the ,triple ,alliance4 ,there was a promise of peace between them and ,belgium2 there was none between them and ,england4 ,the promise to ,belgium they broke4 ,the promise of ,england they invented4 ,it is called the ,treaty of ,teutonism4 ,no one ever heard of it in this country2 but it seems well known in academic circles in ,germany4 ,it seems to be something1 connected with the colour of one's hair4 ,but ,i repeat that ,i am not concerned to interfere with your decision1 save in so far as ,i may provide some materials for it by describing our own4 ,for ,i think the first1 perhaps the only1 fruitful work an ,englishman can do now for the formation of foreign opinion is to talk about what he really understands1 the condition of ,british opinion4 ,it is as simple as it is solid4 ,for the first time1 perhaps1 what we call the ,united ,kingdom entirely deserves its name4 ,there has been nothing like such unanimity within an ,englishman's recollection4 ,the ,irish and even the ,welsh were largely pro-,boers1 so were some of the most ,english of the ,english4 ,no one could have been more ,english than ,fox1 yet he denounced the war with ,napoleon4 ,no one could be more ,english than ,cobden1 but he denounced the war in the ,crimea4 ,it is really extraordinary to find a united ,england4 ,indeed1 until lately1 it was extraordinary to find a united ,englishman4 ,those of us who1 like the present writer1 repudiated the ,south ,african war from its beginnings1 had yet a divided heart in the matter1 and felt certain aspects of it as glorious as well as infamous4 ,the first fact ,i can offer you is the unquestionable fact that all these doubts and divisions have ceased4 ,nor have they ceased by any compromise2 but by a universal flash of faith--or1 if you will1 of suspicion4 ,nor were our internal conflicts lightly abandoned2 nor our reconciliations an easy matter4 ,i am1 as you are1 a democrat and a citizen of ,europe2 and my friends and ,i had grown to loathe the plutocracy and privilege which sat in the high places of our country with a loathing which we thought no love could cast out4 ,of these rich men ,i will not speak here2 with your permission1 ,i will not think of them4 ,war is a terrible business in any case2 and to some intellectual temperaments this is the most terrible part of it4 ,that war takes the young2 that war sunders the lovers2 that all over ,europe brides and bridegrooms are parting at the church door3 all that is only a commonplace to commonplace people4 ,to give up one's love for one's country is very great4 ,but to give up one's hate for one's country1 this may also have in it something of pride and something of purification4 ,what is it that has made the ,british peoples thus defer not only their artificial parade of party politics but their real social and moral complaints and demands8 ,what is it that has united all of us against the ,prussian1 as against a mad dog8 ,it is the presence of a certain spirit1 as unmistakable as a pungent smell1 which we feel is capable of withering all the good things in this world4 ,the burglary of ,belgium1 the bribe to betray ,france1 these are not excuses2 they are facts4 ,but they are only the facts by which we came to know of the presence of the spirit4 ,they do not suffice to define the whole spirit itself4 ,a good rough summary is to say that it is the spirit of barbarism2 but indeed it is something worse4 ,it is the spirit of second-rate civilisation2 and the distinction involves the most important differences4 ,granted that it could exist1 pure barbarism could not last long2 as pure babyhood cannot last long4 ,of his own nature the baby is interested in the ticking of a watch2 and the time will come when you will have to tell him1 if you only tell him the wrong time4 ,and that is exactly what the second-rate civilisation does4 ,but the vital point is here4 ,the abstract barbarian would copy4 ,the cockney and incomplete civilisation always sets itself up to be copied4 ,and in the case here considered1 the ,german thinks that it is not only his business to spread education1 but to spread compulsory education4 ,science combined with organisation1 says ,professor ,ostwald of ,berlin ,university1 makes us terrible to our opponents and ensures a ,german future for ,europe4 ,that is1 as shortly as it can be put1 what we are fighting about4 ,we are fighting to prevent a ,german future for ,europe4 ,we think it would be narrower1 nastier1 less sane1 less capable of liberty and of laughter1 than any of the worst parts of the ,european past4 ,and when ,i cast about for a form in which to explain shortly why we think so1 ,i thought of you4 ,for this is a matter so large that ,i know not how to express it except in terms of artists like you1 in the service of beauty and the faith in freedom4 ,prussia1 at least cannot help me2 ,lord ,palmerston1 ,i believe1 called it a country of damned professors4 ,lord ,palmerston1 ,i fear1 used the word damned more or less flippantly4 ,i use it reverently4 ,rome1 at her very weakest1 has always been a river that wanders and widens and that waters many fields4 ,berlin1 at its strongest1 will never be anything but a whirlpool1 which seeks its own centre1 and is sucked down4 ,it would only narrow all the rest of ,europe1 as it has already narrowed all the rest of ,germany4 ,there is a spirit of diseased egoism1 which at last makes all things spin upon one pin-point in the brain4 ,it is a spirit expressed more often in the slangs than in the tongues of men4 ,the ,english call it a fad4 ,i do not know what the ,italians call it2 the ,prussians call it philosophy4 ,here is the sort of instance that made me think of you4 ,what would you feel first1 let us say1 if ,i mentioned ,michael ,angelo8 ,for the first moment1 perhaps1 boredom3 such as ,i feel when ,americans ask me about ,stratford-on-,avon4 ,but1 supposing that just fear quieted1 you would feel what ,i and every one else can feel4 ,it might be the sense of the majestic hands of ,man upon the locks of the last doors of life2 large and terrible hands1 like those of that youth who poises the stone above ,florence1 and looks out upon the circle of the hills4 ,it might be that huge heave of flank and chest and throat in ,the ,slave1 which is like an earthquake lifting a whole landscape2 it might be that tremendous ,madonna1 whose charity is more strong than death4 ,anyhow1 your thoughts would be something worthy of the man's terrible paganism and his more terrible ,christianity4 ,who but ,god could have graven ,michael ,angelo2 who came so near to graving the ,mother of ,god8 ,german culture deals with the matter as follows3--,michelangelo ,buonarotti 7#adge-aefd74--7;,bernhard7 ancestor of the family1 lived in ,florence about #abaj4 ,he had two sons1 ,berlinghieri and ,buonarrota4 ,by this name recurring frequently in later generations1 the family came to be called4 ,it is a ,german name1 compounded of ,bona 7,bohn7 and ,hrodo1 ,roto 7,rohde1 ,rothe7 ,bona and ,rotto are cited as ,lombard names4 ,buonarotti is perhaps the old ,lombard ,beonrad1 corresponding to the word ,bonroth4 ,corresponding names are ,mackrodt1 ,osterroth1 ,leonard4 ,and so on1 and so on1 and so on4 ,in his face he has always been well-coloured444the eyes might be called small rather than large1 of the colour of horn1 but variable with 'flecks' of yellow and blue4 ,hair and beard are black4 ,these particulars are confirmed by the portraits4 ,first and foremost take the portrait of ,bugiardini in ,museo ,buonarotti4 ,here comes to view the 'flecked' appearance of the iris1 especially in the right eye4 ,the left may be described as almost wholly blue4 ,and so on1 and so on1 and so on4 ,in the ,museo ,civico at ,pavia1 is a fresco likeness by an unknown hand1 in which this fresh red is distinctly recognisable on the face4 ,taking all these bodily characteristics into consideration1 it must be said from an anthropological point of view that though originally of ,german family he was a hybrid between the ,north and ,west brunette race4 ,would you take the trouble to prove that ,michael ,angelo was an ,italian that this man takes to prove that he was a ,german8 ,of course not4 ,the only impression this man 7who is a recognised ,prussian historian7 produces on your mind or mine is that he does not care about ,michael ,angelo4 ,for you1 being an ,italian1 are therefore something more than an ,italian2 and ,i being an ,englishman1 something more than an ,englishman4 ,but this poor fellow really cannot be anything more than a ,prussian4 ,he digs and digs to find dead ,prussians1 in the catacombs of ,rome or under the ruins of ,troy4 ,if he can find one blue eye lying about somewhere1 he is satisfied4 ,he has no philosophy4 ,he has a hobby1 which is collecting ,germans4 ,it would probably be vain for you and me to point out that we could prove anything by the sort of ingenuity which finds the ,german rothe in ,buonarotti4 ,we could have great fun depriving ,germany of all her geniuses in that style4 ,we could say that ,moltke must have been an ,italian1 from the old ,latin root mol--indicating the sweetness of that general's disposition4 ,we might say ,bismarck was a ,frenchman1 since his name begins with the popular theatrical cry of ,bis6 ,we might say ,goethe was an ,englishman1 because his name begins with the popular sporting cry ,go6 ,but the ultimate difference between us and the ,prussian professor is simply that we are not mad4 ,the father of ,frederick the ,great1 the founder of the more modern ,hohenzollerns1 was mad4 ,his madness consisted of stealing giants2 like an unscrupulous travelling showman4 ,any man much over six foot high1 whether he were called the ,russian ,giant or the ,irish ,giant or the ,chinese ,giant or the ,hottentot ,giant1 was in danger of being kidnapped and imprisoned in a ,prussian uniform4 ,it is the same mean sort of madness that is working in ,prussian professors such as the one ,i have quoted4 ,they can get no further than the notion of stealing giants4 ,i will not bore you now with all the other giants they have tried to steal2 it is enough to say that ,st4 ,paul1 ,leonardo da ,vinci1 and ,shakespeare himself are among the monstrosities exhibited at ,frederick-,william fair--on grounds as good as those quoted above4 ,but ,i have put this particular case before you1 as an artist rather than an ,italian1 to show what ,i mean when ,i object to a ,german future for ,europe4 ,i object to something which believes very much in itself1 and in which ,i do not in the least believe4 ,i object to something which is conceited and small-minded2 but which also has that kind of pertinacity which always belongs to lunatics4 ,it wants to be able to congratulate itself on ,michael ,angelo2 never to congratulate the world4 ,it is the spirit that can be seen in those who go bald trying to trace a genealogy2 or go bankrupt trying to make out a claim to some remote estate4 ,the ,prussian has the inconsistency of the parvenu2 he will labour to prove that he is related to some gentleman of the ,renaissance1 even while he boasts of being able to buy him up4 ,if the ,italians were really great1 why--they were really ,germans2 and if they weren't really ,germans1 well then1 they weren't really great4 ,it is an occupation for an old maid4 ,three or four hundred years ago1 in the sad silence that had followed the comparative failure of the noble effort of the ,middle ,ages1 there came upon all ,europe a storm out of the south4 ,its tumult is of many tongues2 one can hear in it the laughter of ,rabelais1 or1 for that matter1 the lyrics of ,shakespeare2 but the dark heart of the storm was indeed more austral and volcanic2 a noise of thunderous wings and the name of ,michael the ,archangel4 ,and when it had shocked and purified the world and passed1 a ,prussian professor found a feather fallen to earth2 and proved 7in several volumes7 that it could only have come from a ,prussian ,eagle4 ,he had seen one--in a cage4 ,yours ------1 ,g4,k4 ,,chesterton4 99 99 99 99 99 ,my ,dear ------ ,the facts before all ,europeans to-day are so fundamental that ,i still find it easier to talk about them to you as to an old friend1 rather than put it in the shape of a pamphlet4 ,in my last letter ,i pointed out two facts which are pivots4 ,the first is that1 to any really cultured person1 ,prussia is second-rate4 ,the second is that to almost any ,prussian1 ,prussia is really first-rate2 and is prepared1 quite literally1 to police the rest of the world4 ,for the first matter1 the comparative inferiority of ,german culture cannot be doubted by people like you4 ,one of the ,german papers pathetically said that1 though the mangling of ,malines and ,rheims was very sad1 it was a comfort to think that yet nobler works of art would spring up wherever the ,german culture had passed in triumph4 ,from the point of view of humour1 it is really rather sad that they never will4 ,the ,german ,emperor's idea of a ,gothic cathedral is as provocative to the fancy as ,mrs4 ,todgers' idea of a wooden leg4 ,but ,i think it perfectly probable that they really intended to set up such beautiful buildings as they could4 ,having been blasphemous enough to ruin such things1 they might well be blasphemous enough to replace them4 ,even if the ,prussian attempt on ,paris had not wholly collapsed as it has1 ,i doubt whether the ,prussians would have destroyed everything4 ,i doubt whether they would even have destroyed the ,venus de ,milo4 ,more probably they would have put a pair of arms on it1 designed by some rising ,german artist--the ,emperor or somebody4 ,and the two arms thus added would look at once like the arms of a woman at a wash-tub4 ,the destroyers of the tower of ,rheims are quite capable of destroying the ,tower of ,giotto4 ,but they are equally capable of the greater crime of completing it4 ,and if they put on a spire1 what a spire it would be6 ,what an extinguisher for that clear and almost transparent ,christian candle6 ,have you read some of the ,german explanations of ,hamlet8 ,did ,i tell you that ,leonardo's hair must have been ,german hair1 because so many of his contemporaries said it was beautiful8 ,this is what ,i call being second-rate4 ,all the ,german excitement about the colonies of ,england is only a half understanding of what was once heroic and is now largely caddish4 ,the ,german ,emperor's naval vision is a bad copy of ,nelson1 as certainly as ,frederick the ,great's verses were a bad copy of ,voltaire4 ,but the second point was even more important2 that weak as the thing is mentally it is strong materially2 and will impose itself materially if we permit it4 ,the ,prussians have failed in everything else2 but they have not failed in getting their subject thousands to do as they are told4 ,they cannot put up black and white towers in ,florence2 but they can really put up black and white posts in ,alsace4 ,they have failed in diplomacy4 ,i suppose it might be called a failure in diplomacy to come into the fight with two enemies extra and one ally the less4 ,if the ,germans1 instead of sending spies to study the ,belgian soil1 had sent spies to consider the ,belgian soul1 they would have been saved hard work for a week or two4 ,they have failed in controversy4 ,i suppose it might be called a failure in controversy to say that ,england may be keeping her word for some wicked purpose2 while ,germany may be breaking her word for some noble purpose4 ,and that is practically all that the ,germans can manage to say4 ,they say that we are an insatiable1 unscrupulous1 piratical power2 and this wild spirit whirled us into the mad course of respecting a treaty we had signed4 ,they can find in us no treason except that we keep our treaties3 failing to do this ,i call failing in controversy4 ,they have failed in popular persuasion4 ,they have had a very good opportunity4 ,the ,british ,empire does contain many people who have been badly treated in various ways3 the ,irish1 the ,boers2 nay1 the ,americans themselves1 whose national existence began with being badly treated4 ,with these the ,prussians have done comparatively little2 and with ,europeans of your sort nothing4 ,they have never once really sympathised with the feeling of a ,switzer for ,switzerland2 the feeling of a ,norwegian for ,norway2 the feeling of a ,tuscan for ,tuscany4 ,even when nations are neutral1 ,prussia can hardly bear them to be patriotic4 ,even when they are courting every one else they can praise no one but themselves4 ,they fail in diplomacy1 they fail in debate1 they fail even in demagogy4 ,they have stupid plots1 stupid explanations1 and even stupid apologies4 ,but there is one thing they really do not fail in4 ,they do not fail in finding people stupid enough to carry them out4 ,now1 it is this question ,i would ask you to consider2 you1 as a good middle type of the ,latins1 a ,liberal but a ,catholic1 an artist but a soldier4 ,the danger to the whole civilisation of which ,rome was the fountain lies in this4 ,that the more this strange ,pruss people fail in all the other things1 the more they will fall back on this mere fact of a brutal obedience4 ,they will give orders2 they have nothing else to give4 ,i say that this is the question for you2 ,i do not say1 ,i do not dream of saying1 that the answer is for me4 ,it is for you to weigh the chance that their very failures in the arts of peace will drive them back upon the arts of war4 ,they could not1 and they did not1 dupe your people in diplomacy4 ,they did the most undiplomatic thing that can be done2 they concealed a breach of partnership without even concealing the concealment4 ,they instigated the intrigue in ,austria in such a way that ,italy could honestly claim all the freedom of past ignorance1 combined with all the disillusionment of present knowledge4 ,they so ran the ,triple ,alliance that they had to admit your grievance1 at the very moment when they claimed your aid4 ,the ,english are stupider and less sensitive than you are2 but even the ,english found the ,german ,chancellor's diplomacy not insinuating but simply insulting2 ,i swear ,i would be a better diplomatist myself4 ,in the same way1 there is no danger of people like you being corrupted in controversy4 ,there is no fear that the professors who pullulate all over the ,baltic ,plain will overcome the ,latins in logic4 ,some of them even claim to be super-logical2 and say they are too big for syllogisms2 generally having found even one syllogism too big for them4 ,if they complain either of your abstention from their cause or your adhesion to any other1 you have an unanswerable answer4 ,you will say1 as you did say1 that you did not break the ,triple ,alliance1 even for the sake of peace4 ,it was they who broke it for the sake of war4 ,you1 obviously1 had as much right to be consulted about ,servia as ,austria had2 and on the mere chess-board of argument it is mate in one move4 ,nor are they in the least fitted to make an appeal to the popular sentiment of your people4 ,the ,english1 ,i dare say1 and the ,french1 have talked an amazing amount of nonsense about you2 but they understand a little better4 ,they do not write exactly like this1 which is from the most public and accepted ,prussian political philosopher 7,chamberlain74 ,who can live in ,italy to-day and mix with its amiable and highly gifted inhabitants without feeling with pain that here a great nation is lost1 irredeemably lost1 because it lacks the inner driving power1 etc41 which has brought ,von ,kluck so triumphantly through ,paris4 ,even a half-educated ,englishman1 who has heard of no ,italian poet except ,dante1 knows that he was something more than amiable4 ,even a positively illiterate ,frenchman1 who has heard of no ,italian warrior except ,napoleon1 knows that it was not in inner driving force that the artilleryman in question was deficient4 ,who can live in ,italy to-day8 ,evidently the ,prussian philosopher can't4 ,his impressions are taken from ,italian operas2 not from ,italian streets2 certainly not from ,italian fields4 ,as a matter of fact such images of ,italy as burn in the memories of most open-minded ,northerners who have been there1 are of exactly the other kind4 ,i for one should be inclined to say1 ,who can live in ,italy to-day without feeling that a woman feeding children1 or a man chopping wood1 may almost touch him with fear with the fulness of their humanity3 so that he can almost smell blood1 as one smells burning8 ,italians often look lazy2 that is1 they look as if they would not move2 but not as if they could not move1 as many ,germans do4 ,but even though this formula fitted the ,italians1 it seems scarcely calculated to please them4 ,for the ,prussians1 then1 with the failure of their diplomacy1 the failure of their philosophy1 we may also place the failure of their appeals to a foreign people4 ,the ,prussian writer may continue his attempts to soothe and charm you by telling you that you are irredeemably lost1 and that all great ,italians must have been something else4 ,but the method seems to me ill adapted to popular propaganda2 and ,i cannot but say that on this third point of persuasion1 the ,german attempt is not striking4 ,now all this is important for this reason4 ,if you consider it carefully you will see why ,europe must1 at whatever cost1 break ,germany in battle3 and put an end to her military and material power to do things4 ,if we all have to fight for it1 if we all have to die for it1 it must be done4 ,if we find allies in the dwarfs of ,greenland or the giants of ,patagonia1 it must be done4 ,and the reason is that unless it is literally and materially done1 other things will be literally and materially done2 and horrify the heavens4 ,they will be silly things2 they will be benighted and limited and laughable things2 but they will be accomplished things4 ,nothing could be more ridiculous1 if that is all1 than the moral position of the ,prussian in ,poland2 where a magnificent officer1 making a vast parade of ruling1 tries to cheat poor peasants out of their fields 7and gets cheated7 and then takes refuge in beating little boys for saying their prayers in their native tongue4 ,all who remember anything of dignity1 of irony1 in short of ,rome and reason1 can see why an officer need not1 should not1 had better not1 and generally does not1 beat little boys4 ,but an officer can beat little boys3 and a ,prussian officer will go on doing it until you take away the stick4 ,nothing could be more comic1 if that is all1 than the position of ,prussians in ,alsace3 which they declare to be purely ,german and admit to be furiously ,french2 so that they have to terrorise it by sabring anybody1 including cripples4 ,again1 any of us can see why an officer need not1 should not1 had better not1 and generally does not1 sabre a cripple4 ,but an officer can sabre a cripple2 and a ,prussian officer will go on doing it until you take away the sabre4 ,it is this insane and rigid realism that makes their case peculiar3 like that of a ,chinaman copying something1 or a half-witted servant taking a message4 ,if they had the power to put black and white posts round the grave of ,virgil1 or dig up ,dante to see if he had yellow hair1 the mere doing of it which for some of us would be the most unlikely1 would for them be the least unlikely thing4 ,they do not hear the laughter of the ages4 ,if they had the power to treat the ,english or ,italian ,premier quite literally as a traitor1 and shoot him against a wall1 they are quite capable of turning such hysterical rhetoric into reality3 and scattering his brains before they had collected their own4 ,they do not feel atmospheres4 ,they are all a little deaf2 as they are all a little short-sighted4 ,they are annoyed when their enemies1 after such experiences as those of ,belgium1 accuse them of breaking their promises4 ,and in one sense they are right2 for there are some sorts of promises they probably would keep4 ,if they have promised to respect a free country1 or an old friend1 to observe a sworn partnership1 or to spare a harmless population1 they will find such restrictions chilling and irksome4 ,they will ask some professor on what principle they are discarding it4 ,but if they have promised to shoot the cross off a church spire1 or empty the inkpot into somebody's beer1 or bring home somebody's ears in their pocket for the pleasure of their families1 ,i think in these cases they would feel a sort of a shadow of what civilised men feel in the fulfilment of a promise1 as distinct from the making of it4 ,and1 in consideration of such cases1 ,i cannot go the whole length of those severe critics who say that a ,prussian will never keep his promise4 ,unfortunately1 it is precisely this sort of actuality and fulfilment that makes it urgent that ,europe should put forth her whole energy to drag down these antique demoniacs2 these idiots filled with force as by fiends4 ,they will do things1 as a maniac will1 until he cannot do them4 ,to me it seemed that some things could not be said and done4 ,i thought a man would have been ashamed to bribe a new enemy like ,england to betray an old enemy like ,france4 ,i thought a man would have been ashamed to punish the pure self-defence of folk so offenceless as the ,belgians4 ,these hopes must go from us1 my friend4 ,there is only one thing of which the ,prussian would be ashamed2 and of that1 we have sworn to ,god1 he shall taste before the end4 99 99 99 99 99 ,my ,dear ------ ,the ,prussianised ,german1 of whatever blend of races he may be1 has one quality which may perhaps be racially simple2 but which is1 at any rate1 very plain4 ,chamberlain1 the ,german philosopher or historian 7,i know not which to call him or how to call him either7 remarks somewhere that purebred races possess fidelity2 he instances the negro and the dog--and1 ,i suppose1 the ,german4 ,anyhow1 it is true that there is a recognisable and real thing which might be called fidelity 7or perhaps monotony7 which exists in ,germans in about the same style as in dogs and niggers4 ,the ,north ,teuton really has in this respect the simplicities of the savage and the lower animals2 that he has no reactions4 ,he does not laugh at himself4 ,he does not want to kick himself4 ,he does not1 like most of us1 repent--or occasionally even repent of repenting4 ,he does not read his own works and find them much worse or much better than he had expected4 ,he does not feel a faint irrational sense of debauch1 after even divine pleasures of this life4 ,watch him at a ,german restaurant1 and you will satisfy yourself that he does not4 ,in short1 both in the most scientific and in the most casual sense of the word1 he does not know what it is to have a temper4 ,he does not bend and fly back like steel2 he sticks out1 like wood4 ,in this he differs from any nation ,i have known1 from your nation and mine1 from the ,french1 the ,spanish1 the ,scotch1 the ,welsh and the ,irish4 ,bad luck never braces him as it does us4 ,good luck never frightens him as it does us4 ,it can be seen in what the ,french call ,chauvinism and we call ,jingoism4 ,for us it is fireworks2 for him it is daylight4 ,on ,mafeking ,night1 celebrating a small but picturesque success against the ,boers1 nearly everybody in ,london came out waving little flags4 ,nearly everybody in ,london is now heartily ashamed of it4 ,but it would never occur to the ,prussians not to ride their high horses with the freshest insolence for the far-off victory of ,sedan2 though on that very anniversary the star of their fate had turned scornful in the sky1 and ,von ,kluck was in retreat from ,paris4 ,above all1 the ,prussian does not feel annoyed1 as ,i do1 when foreigners praise his country for all the wrong reasons4 ,the ,prussian will allow you to praise him for any reasons1 for any length of time1 for any eternity of folly2 he is there to be praised4 ,probably he is proud of this2 probably he thinks he has a good digestion1 because the poison of praise does not make him sick4 ,he thinks the absence of such doubt1 or self-knowledge1 makes for composure1 grandeur1 a colossal calm1 a superior race--in short1 the whole claim of the ,teutons to be the highest spiritual product of ,nature and ,evolution4 ,but as ,i have noticed a calm unity even more complete1 not only in dogs and negroes1 but in slugs1 slow-worms1 mangoldwurzels1 moss1 mud and bits of stone1 ,i am a sceptic about this test for the marshalling in rank of all the children of ,god4 ,now ,i point this out to you here for a very practical reason4 ,the ,prussian will never understand revolutions--which are generally reactions4 ,he regards them1 not only with dislike1 but with a mysterious kind of pity4 ,throughout his confused popular histories1 there runs a strange suggestion that civic populations have failed hitherto1 and failed because they were always fighting4 ,the population of ,berlin does not fight1 or can't2 and therefore ,berlin will succeed where ,greece and ,rome have failed4 ,hitherto it is plain enough that ,berlin has succeeded in nothing except in bad copies of ,greece and ,rome2 and ,prussians would be wiser to discuss the details of the ,greek and ,roman past1 which we can follow1 rather than the details of their own future1 about which we are naturally not so well informed4 ,well1 every dome they build1 every pillar they put upright1 every pedestal for epitaph or panel for decoration1 every type of church1 ,catholic or ,protestant1 every kind of street1 large or small1 they have copied from the old ,pagan or ,catholic cities2 and those cities1 when they made those things1 were boiling with revolutions4 ,i remember a ,german professor saying to me1 ,i should have no scruple about extinguishing such republics as ,brazil1 ,venezuela1 ,bolivia1 ,nicaragua2 they are perpetually rioting for one thing or another4 ,i said ,i supposed he would have had no scruple in extinguishing ,athens1 ,rome1 ,florence and ,paris2 for they were always rioting for one thing or another4 ,his reply indicated1 ,i thought1 that he felt about ,csar or ,rienzi very much as the ,scotch ,presbyterian ,minister felt about ,christ1 when he was reminded of the corn-plucking on the ,sabbath1 and said1 ,weel1 ,i dinna think the better of him4 ,in other words he was quite positive1 like all his countrymen1 that he could impose a sort of ,pax ,germanica1 which would satisfy all the needs of order and of freedom forever2 leaving no need for revolutions or reactions4 ,i am myself of a different opinion4 ,when ,i was a child1 when the toy-trade of ,germany had begun to flood this country1 there was a priggish ,british couplet1 engraven on the minds of governesses1 which ran-- ,what the ,german children delight to make ,the ,english children delight to break4 ,i can answer for the delight of the ,english children2 a just and godlike delight4 ,i am not so sure about the delight of the ,german children1 when they were caught in the infernal wheels of the modern civilisation of factories4 ,but1 for the present1 ,i am only concerned to say that ,i do not accept this line of historical division4 ,i do not think history supports the view that those who could break things could not make them4 ,this is the least intrusive approach by which ,i can touch on a topic that must of necessity be a delicate one2 yet which may well be a difficulty among ,latins like yourself4 ,against this preposterous ,prussian upstart we have not only to protect our unity2 we have even to protect our quarrels4 ,and the deepest of the reactions or revolts of which ,i have spoken is the quarrel which 7very tragically as ,i think7 has for some hundred years cloven the ,christian from the ,liberal ideal4 ,it would ill become me1 in whose country there is neither such clear doctrine nor such combative democracy1 to suppose it can be easy for any of you to close up such sacred wounds4 ,there must still be ,catholics who feel they can never forgive a ,jacobin4 ,there must still be old ,republicans who feel that they could never endure a priest4 ,and yet there is something1 the mere sight of which should lock them both in an instant alliance4 ,they have only to look northward and hold the third thing1 which thinks itself superior to either3 the enormous turnip-face of ce type l1 as the ,french say1 who conceives that he can make them both like himself and yet remain superior to both4 ,i implore you to keep out of the hands of this ,fool the quarrel of the great saints and of the great blasphemers4 ,he will do to religion what he will do to art2 mix up all the colours on your palette into the colour of mud3 and then say that only the purified eyes of ,teutons can see that it is pure white4 ,the other day the ,director of ,museums in ,berlin was said to be setting about the creation of a new kind of ,art3 ,german ,art4 ,philosophers and men of science were at the same time directed to meet round the table and found a new ,religion3 ,german ,religion4 ,how can such people appreciate art2 how can they appreciate religion--nay1 how can they appreciate irreligion8 ,how does one invent a message8 ,how does one create a ,creator8 ,is it not the plain meaning of the ,gospel that it is good news8 ,and is it not the plain meaning of good news that it must come from outside oneself8 ,otherwise ,i could make myself happy this moment1 by inventing an enormous victory in ,flanders4 ,and ,i suppose 7now ,i come to think of it7 that the ,germans do4 ,by the fulness of your faith and even the fulness of your despair1 you that remember ,rome1 have earned a right to prevent all our quarrels being quenched in such cold water from the north4 ,but it is not too much to say that neither religion at its worst nor republicanism at its worst ever offered the coarse insult to all mankind that is offered by this new and nakedly universal monarchy4 ,there has always been something common to civilised men1 whether they called it being merely a citizen2 or being merely a sinner4 ,there has always been something which your ancestors called ,verecundia2 which is at once humility and dignity4 ,whatever our faults1 we do not do exactly as the ,prussians do4 ,we do not bellow day and night to draw attention to our own stern silence4 ,we do not praise ourselves solely because nobody else will praise us4 ,i1 for one1 say at the end of these letters1 as ,i said at the beginning2 that in these international matters ,i have often differed from my countrymen2 ,i have often differed from myself4 ,i shall not claim the completeness of this silly creature we discuss4 ,i shall not answer his boasts with boasts2 but with blows4 ,my front-door is beaten in and broken down suddenly4 ,i see nothing outside1 except a sort of smiling1 straw-haired commercial traveller with a notebook open1 who says1 ,excuse me1 ,i am a faultless being1 ,i have persuaded ,poland2 ,i can count on my respectful ,allies in ,alsace4 ,i am simply loved in ,lorraine4 ,quae reggio in terris 444 ,what place is there on earth where the name of ,prussia is not the signal for hopeful prayers and joyful dances8 ,i am that ,german who has civilised ,belgium2 and delicately trimmed the frontiers of ,denmark4 ,and ,i may tell you1 with the fulness of conviction1 that ,i have never failed1 and shall never fail in anything4 ,permit me1 therefore1 to bless your house by the passage of my beautiful boots2 that ,i may burgle the house next door4 ,and then something ,european that is prouder than pride will rise up in me2 and ,i shall answer3-- ,i am that ,englishman who has tortured ,ireland1 who has been tortured by ,south ,africa2 who knows all his mistakes1 who is heavy with all his sins4 ,and he tells you1 ,faultless ,being1 with a truth as deep as his own guilt1 and as deathless as his own remembrance1 that you shall not pass this way4