Class 12 5 
 Book 
 
 HdG 
 
THE NEW (GERMAN) 
 TESTAMENT 
 
 BY 
 
 ANTHONY HOPE 
 
 METHUEN & CO. LTD. LONDON 
 
 THREEPENCE NET 
 
THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
THE NEW (GERMAN) 
 TESTAMENT 
 
 SOME TEXTS AND A COMMENTARY 
 
 BY 
 
 ANTHONY HOPE 
 
 THIRD EDITION 
 
 METHUEN & GO. LTD. 
 
 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. 
 
 LONDON 
 
116^ 
 
 
 
 First Published . . December gth igi4 
 Second Edition . . January 26th igis 
 
 ^ 1919 
 

 CONTENTS 
 
 I 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE BLESSINGS OF — WAR . . .7 
 
 II 
 
 GREAT Britain's blunder . . .20 
 
 III 
 
 PAPER bulwarks . . . • 3^ 
 
 IV 
 
 empire — AND LIBERTY? . . '5^ 
 
THE NEW 
 (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 I 
 
 THE BLESSINGS OF— WAR 
 
 WE have all been on the wrong 
 tack— we, the nations great and 
 small — who have counted ourselves civi- 
 lized and Christian ; the great and 
 populous nations who have worked for 
 peace and often imposed it by diplo- 
 macy ; the numerically weak nations 
 who have accepted peace as a per- 
 manent and honourable condition of 
 their independent life. 
 
 Lamentably wrong have our states- 
 men been, with their efforts after peace, 
 their Hague Conferences, Arbitration 
 Treaties, Arbitration Commissions, pro- 
 hibition of armaments on the Great 
 
8 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 Lakes of North America, and so forth. 
 Lamentably wrong our Churches, with 
 their ministers preaching peace and 
 praying for it, with their congregations 
 in their millions breathing the same 
 prayer to the Throne of God. And how 
 pitiable to think that we have deluded 
 even our little children into lisping 
 prayers for peace and into conceiving 
 of the august and gracious figure of the 
 Founder of their religion as the Prince 
 of Peace ! 
 
 We have indeed recognized that peace 
 is not to be purchased at any and every 
 price, that we must fight in the 
 cause of national independence, or vital 
 interest, or dear honour, going indeed 
 so far as sometimes to fight merely 
 because we promised to — a quixotic pro- 
 ceeding in the sincerity of which it is 
 wellnigh impossible to believe ! But 
 we have been at a wrong angle of vision 
 all the same. We thought we were 
 accepting a mighty evil to escape from 
 a mightier. We have tried to escape 
 these mightier evils by other means. 
 
THE BLESSINGS OF— WAR 9 
 
 We have dared to dream of the time 
 when the sense of right, justice, and 
 human comradeship would be our shield 
 and buckler, and when the last remedy of 
 war would be no more needed. In this 
 dream we may have accused ourselves, 
 in despondent hours, of being visionary 
 and Utopian. We were, in fact, some- 
 thing much worse than that, as will 
 speedily appear. 
 
 Germany knows better about all this ; 
 at least, Prussia does ; or, at all 
 events, the Prussian generals do — 
 witness General von Bernhardi, whose 
 book " Germany and the Next War " 
 is now enjoying a prominence which 
 must be counted well-deserved. The 
 book, written some three years ago, is 
 primarily an exhortation to the German 
 nation ; but other nations may naturally 
 take an interest in it at the present time. 
 Unless his translator (on whom my 
 ignorance of German compels me to 
 rely) wrongs him, the General, though 
 not a vivacious writer, is admirably 
 lucid, and can say what he means as 
 
10 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 well as anybody. The Germans, he 
 says in his Introduction, " have to-day 
 become a peace-loving — an almost too 
 peace-loving — nation." (I do not know 
 how far this reproach is just ; but, if 
 it is, one may be allowed to be sorry 
 for them just now.) "We are accus- 
 tomed," he remarks regretfully, ** to 
 regard war as a curse, and refuse to 
 recognize it as the greatest factor in the 
 furtherance of culture and power." 
 
 Again : ** I must first of all examine 
 the aspirations for peace, which seem to 
 dominate our age, and threaten to poison 
 the soul of the German people, accord- 
 ing to their true moral significance." 
 Poison I A strong word ! We begin to 
 see how wrong we have been in our 
 notions — instilling this " poison " of a 
 love of peace into the veins even of 
 our children 1 
 
 " I must try to prove that war is not 
 merely a necessary element in the life 
 of nations, but an indispensable factor 
 of culture, in which a truly civilized 
 nation finds the highest expression of 
 
THE BLESSINGS OF— WAB 11 
 
 strength and vitality." That we took 
 altogether too low a view of war is 
 obvious. We have done nothing like 
 justice to it. It is not a desperate 
 remedy : it is an uncommonly good 
 thing in itself. 
 
 In fact it is so good a thing that 
 people who profess to hate it are mostly 
 just humbugging. " Pacific ideals, to 
 be sure, are seldom the real motive of 
 their action. They usually employ the 
 need of peace as a cloak under which 
 to promote their own political aims. 
 This was the real position of affairs at 
 the Hague Conference, and this is also 
 the meaning of the action of the United 
 States of America, who in recent times 
 earnestly tried to conclude treaties for 
 the establishment of Arbitration Courts, 
 first and foremost with England, but also 
 with Japan, France, and Germany." 
 America is pretty well shown up — with 
 her talk about peace and brotherhood, 
 and blood being thicker than water I 
 
 " War is a biological necessity of the 
 first importance, a regulative element in 
 
12 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 the life of mankind which cannot be 
 dispensed with, since without it an un- 
 heahhy development will follow, which 
 excludes every advancement of the race, 
 and therefore all real civilization." And 
 we dreamed of abolishing it — at all 
 events, of restricting it to the narrowest 
 limits and the most inevitable occasions ! 
 Whereas it appears that, if we have not 
 got a casus belli, we ought to find one 
 as soon as possible. So long as the 
 General has his way, we may easily be 
 presented with one without looking 
 for it. 
 
 But war is more than a biological 
 necessity. " Might is at once the 
 supreme right, and the dispute as to 
 what is right is decided by the arbitra- 
 ment of war. War gives a biologically 
 just decision, since its decisions rest on 
 the very nature of things." So that 
 nationality, liberty, aggression, treaties 
 ("scraps of paper"), etc., go for 
 nothing, and we are just as wrong in 
 considering them as in working or 
 praying for peace. 
 
THE BLESSINGS OF— WAR 13 
 
 War has done very well already in 
 the General's hands ; its virtues are not 
 exhausted yet. " It is not only a 
 biological law but a moral obligation 
 and, as such, an indispensable factor in 
 civilization." 
 
 Now even we, in spite of our mis- 
 takes, should not deny that war may be 
 on occasion a moral obligation, either 
 towards ourselves or towards others. 
 But there is a vast difference be- 
 tween " is " and " may be." The 
 latter suggests the contingent and occa- 
 sional, the former the normal and 
 regular. The General's point of view 
 is clear by his addition — *' an indispen- 
 sable factor in civilization." Indispen- 
 sable factors are not things endured 
 reluctantly and occasionally ; they are 
 permanent and necessary — and pre- 
 sumably not very rare — features. Such 
 is the position war holds in the General's 
 conception of civilization. He makes 
 this entirely clear as he proceeds to a 
 rapturous eulogy of the virtues of war, 
 fortified by quotations from Treitschke, 
 
14 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 Schiller, and Frederick the Great. He 
 makes it notably clear by his illu- 
 minating observation that these virtues 
 get no fair scope in " the pitiable 
 existence of all small States." 
 
 " The pitiable existence of all small 
 States ! " We may suppose that Bel- 
 gium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland 
 (to name no more) will see themselves 
 as they really are in the light of these 
 words. Perhaps we — and they — may 
 also suppose with some plausibility that 
 the General, if he has his way, will be 
 charitable enough to relieve them from 
 their pitiable existence as small States ; 
 he will put them out of their misery — 
 as small States. 
 
 'What will he do with them if he has 
 his way? He does not, so far as I 
 can find, say explicitly — he is more 
 occupied in disposing of greater Powers 
 — but farther on in the book he remarks 
 with much emphasis : *' In the future 
 the importance of Germany will depend 
 on two points : firstly, how many 
 millions of men in the world speak 
 
THE BLESSINGS OF— WAR 15 
 
 German ; secondly, how many of them 
 are poUtically members of the German 
 Empire." In the light of this, and 
 in view of the General's undoubted 
 patriotism, it is not perhaps hard to 
 conclude how the pitiable existence of 
 the small States is to be brought to a 
 merciful conclusion. 
 
 And to what end does the biological 
 necessity work, the biologically just de- 
 cisions tend? What is to be the reward 
 of observing the moral obligation and 
 of cherishing and promoting the indis- 
 pensable factor in civilization? For the 
 General as a German the answer is 
 plain. " Thus alone," he says, " shall 
 we discharge our great duties of the 
 future, grow into a World Power, and 
 stamp a great part of humanity with 
 the impress of the German spirit." 
 That is the answer for Germany — a vast 
 and indefinite expansion of the German 
 spirit, of the German culture of later 
 days which has produced and which 
 inspires the General's political philoso- 
 phy. For Germany so far, so good. 
 
16 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 We understand the answer. It is frank 
 and plain--^and it does not take us by 
 surprise. 
 
 What is the answer for other nations? 
 
 For the small nations we have seen 
 it already. They are to be stamped with 
 the impress of the German spirit ; their 
 ** pitiable existences " are to be ended. 
 We may borrow a phrase current in 
 another connection. A steam-roller is 
 to be passed over them — the steam- 
 roller not of Russian troops but of 
 Prussian notions ; the steam-roller not 
 of a campaign but of a conception and 
 a culture — the culture that fosters the 
 General's philosophy and the Prussian 
 military system. An end to their 
 national existence, to their national 
 idealS;, to the rich diversity of civiliza- 
 tion to which the world has owed so 
 much and from which it had such hopes 
 in the future ! No independent voice 
 is to be raised from the land that was 
 the home of Ibsen, no independent 
 dreams of beauty from the country that 
 gave us Maeterlinck ! Where the steam- 
 
THE BLESSINGS OF— WAR 17 
 
 roller has passed nothing is to be heard 
 but the accents of the culture which has 
 produced the General's philosophy and 
 inspired the Prussian military system. 
 
 What is the answer for the great 
 nations ? 
 
 For France ? But we may leave 
 France out. The General himself gives 
 the answer. " France must be so com- 
 pletely crushed that she can never again 
 come across our path." France is to 
 be steam-rollered ! And at least a 
 pretty broad edge of the machine may 
 be expected to pass over her Allies also. 
 
 But what is the answer for the great 
 nations not engaged in the war ? Or are 
 all to be engaged? Is the whole world 
 to be stamped — and stamped out? Even 
 the General can hardly expect that. 
 Well, then, what is the prospect for 
 these great nations and for the lands 
 they people and administer? The 
 General's philosophy, though invented 
 and patented in Germany, can hardly 
 be limited to that country. If it be 
 successful, other nations will help, them- 
 
18 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 selves to licences for its employment. 
 They too will recognize the biological 
 law ; they too will seek, by that Might 
 which is the supreme Right, biologically 
 just decisions ; they will not neglect the 
 moral obligation, nor suffer the indis- 
 pensable factor in civilization to lie idle. 
 They too, converted by the General's 
 philosophy, will seek war and ensue it. 
 Because to the General's converts war 
 is not a calamity which must be faced 
 sometimes — which must happen some- 
 times — owing to human fault or frailty : 
 it is a thing which ought to happen 
 normally, in the interests of a nation's 
 spirit and culture. 
 
 Behold, then, the prospect that lies 
 before the world if the General's phil- 
 osophy triumphs in the schools, and the 
 military system which it inspires repeats 
 the triumph in the field ! For the small 
 nations extinction — political, intellectual, 
 spiritual. For the great nations an end- 
 less strife, generation after generation 
 of mankind locked in deadly and bloody 
 struggles. And no end to it, no hope, 
 
THE BLESSINGS OF- WAR 10 
 
 no dream, of an end to it I For war will 
 be not merely a thing which must 
 happen : it will be a thing which ought 
 to happen. It will not only be a neces- 
 sity : it will also be an ideal, and he 
 who prays, *' Give peace in our time, 
 O Lord I " will be sinning against his 
 country and his own soul. 
 
 Whereupon that discredited creature, 
 the Angel of Peace, will spread her 
 wings, soar to the heavens to report the 
 failure of her mission, and leave the 
 earth to enjoy for ever the blessings 
 of war. 
 
II 
 
 GREAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER 
 
 A MAN generally knows whether 
 he is a knave or not, but generally 
 does not know whether or not he is a 
 fool. Hence he would sooner be called 
 knave than fool. If he is a knave, he 
 cannot much resent the accusation ; if 
 his conscience is clear, he dismisses it 
 with a smile. But to taunt him with 
 being a fool makes him uneasy and sets 
 him on self-examination. 
 
 It is the same with nations, and hence 
 it comforts a nation to find its enemies 
 imputing to it not folly or blindness but 
 a long-headed cunning, even though 
 the cunning ascribed to it be untram- 
 melled by scruples to a degree which 
 it would not itself be willing for a 
 
 20 
 
GBEAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER 21 
 
 moment to admit. England had sooner 
 be called perfidious than a blockhead. 
 
 Her enemies, as a rule, fall in with 
 her preference, imputing to her a con- 
 sistent, unscrupulous, and supremely 
 able policy of self-interest which seems 
 to Englishmen themselves as much 
 above their intellectual capacity as it is 
 below their most modest conception of 
 their own morals. 
 
 But England is not quite the perfect 
 villain. She has had her lapses ; she 
 has missed her chance now and then. 
 She has not always hit her man on the 
 head when he was least able to hit back ; 
 she has not always stabbed him in the 
 back when he was fighting somebody 
 else in front — not always, however much, 
 of course, she may, in certain eyes, under 
 various fine pretexts about treaties and 
 neutral rights, be doing it now. 
 
 One sore lapse of this kind that 
 notable exponent of German policy and 
 principles. General von Bernhardi, is 
 good enough to point out to his country- 
 men and to us in his book " Germany 
 
22 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 and the Next War." »He is much struck 
 with it ; he refers to it more than once . 
 Here are a couple of passages — I quote 
 from the EngUsh translation of the 
 book : — 
 
 " Since England committed the un- 
 pardonable blunder, from her point of 
 view, of not supporting the Southern 
 States in the American War of Seces- 
 sion, a rival to England's world-wide 
 Empire has appeared on the other side 
 of the Atlantic in the form of the 
 United States of North America, 
 which are a grave menace to England's 
 fortunes." 
 
 Again : " This policy [i.e. the German 
 policy of not effecting " a final settling 
 of accounts with France " at a favour- 
 able moment] somewhat resembles the 
 supineness for which England has her- 
 self to blame, when she refused her 
 assistance to the Southern States in the 
 American War of Secession, and thus 
 allowed a Power to arise, in the form 
 of the United States of North America, 
 which already, although barely fifty 
 
GREAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER 23 
 
 years have elapsed, threatens England's 
 own position as a World Power." 
 
 I am not old enough — just not old 
 enough — to remember the War of Seces- 
 sion, but I have talked with many who 
 remember those days well, and we have 
 all read many books about that troubled 
 and momentous time. Everybody knows 
 that there was a great deal of sympathy 
 for the South in England, especially 
 among the upper classes, even more 
 powerful politically then than now. 
 Everybody knows that war nearly came 
 about by reason of it^ but was avoided 
 — happily and mercifully avoided, as we 
 Englishmen have been in the habit of 
 saying, till General von Bernhardi came 
 along to teach us to say " unhappily and 
 stupidly evaded " ! Everybody knows 
 that in the end the preponderance of 
 opinion in England imposed not mter- 
 vention on the Northern side but a 
 neutrality which left the sad but splendid 
 conflict to be fought out without foreign 
 interference — to be fought out by men 
 on both sides who believed that they 
 
24 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 fought in a righteous cause, for which 
 they were ready and bounden, not only 
 to lay down their own lives but to take 
 the lives of their fellow-countrymen — 
 aye, of their own brethren, if need be. 
 History lays her wreath of laurel on 
 the graves of the heroes of the North 
 and of the South alike. And the Great 
 Republic lives. 
 
 That was what Great Britain did. 
 What does General von Bernhardi, with 
 his Prussian politico -military philosophy 
 and principles, say that she ought to 
 have done— only her supineness and 
 unpardonable blundering prevented her 
 from doing it? For her there should 
 have been no nonsense about which side 
 was right, no nonsense about generous 
 and disinterested sympathy with the 
 South's strong Constitutional case and 
 splendid pluck on the one side, or with 
 the sentiment of national unity, the cause 
 of the slaves, or the dogged and perse- 
 vering valour which drew hearts to the 
 other side. All these were simply 
 irrelevant. Great Britain — if she would 
 
GREAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER 25 
 
 not be supine and stupid — had simply 
 to ask, "What will pay me best?" 
 And simply to answer, " Helping the 
 South." Why? ''Because by Jielplng 
 the South I shall in the long run cripple 
 both South and North. By helping one 
 I shall hurt both'' 
 
 How were we to achieve that master- 
 stroke of policy against a friendly and 
 kindred people? Very simply. We 
 were to provide the Federal States (the 
 United States would no longer have 
 existed ! ) with a neighbour — an armed 
 and angry neighbour. The Confederate 
 States a nation, perpetually a rival, 
 always potentially a foe ! Hatred and 
 rivalry between themselves were to keep 
 Americans busy, their hands filled with 
 that, while the astute Britisher filled his 
 pockets with the trade that his cousins 
 had not time to attend to ! 
 
 Why were we so stupid? Why did 
 we make the unpardonable blunder of 
 not adopting a policy so astute, so 
 profitable, so thoroughly worthy of a 
 great nation, claiming to be in the van 
 
26 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 of civilization and culture ? Because this 
 policy appears to be that which recom- 
 mends itself, in the light of history, to 
 what is the greatest and finest civiliza- 
 tion of all — the present German variety. 
 
 Well, we must concede this much to 
 General von Bernhardi and his theory 
 of our unpardonable blunder : we did 
 not adopt the policy because, among 
 other reasons, it never entered our 
 heads. There may have been a few 
 Machiavellis (or Bernhardis) about, but 
 our people as a whole were guided by 
 their sympathies, by their prejudices if 
 you will ; the question of self-interest 
 was not present to their minds. 
 
 But if it had been? I think I know 
 what the attitude of the British people 
 would have been towards such a policy ; 
 but I have no desire to indulge in strong 
 language about the moral and political 
 principles which inspire the German (or 
 perhaps I should say Prussian) state- 
 craft of which the General is so dis- 
 tinguished and resolute a champion. 
 The important thing is that the free 
 
GREAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER 27 
 
 peoples of the world — the peoples them- 
 selves, and not merely their politicians 
 and their professors — should understand 
 what the canons of this statecraft are. 
 When once the free peoples under- 
 stand we are content to abide by their 
 verdict. 
 
 For though I have chosen — and of 
 course purposely chosen — an example of 
 this statecraft which has a special 
 interest for Americans as well as for 
 ourselves, the question itself is a much 
 wider one, and has an actual, not merely 
 an historical, interest for all the nations, 
 as well as for the combatants in 
 the present great struggle. For this 
 struggle, immense and terrible as it is, 
 is but a step, an incident, in the world- 
 policy which General von Bernhardi ex- 
 pounds. If it ends as he would have it 
 end, on his own principles his cry must 
 still be " Onward ! " 
 
 The world is being asked to-day to 
 choose between two conceptions of 
 national policy and duty. There has 
 been no more momentous question put 
 
28 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 to it since history began. And it must 
 be answered. Quo VadisP The ques- 
 tion is put to the civilized world. 
 
 Let us try to sketch, briefly and 
 roughly, what has been among civilized 
 peoples the ideal of national policy in 
 international affairs in recent times. It 
 is with ideals that we are dealing. No 
 doubt all nations have occasionally 
 sinned against the light, more or less 
 purposely, more or less consciously, 
 always (I think) in face of a strong 
 protest from a strong minority of their 
 own citizens, and generally with a swift 
 return to a worthier mind. What has 
 been this ideal ? 
 
 The State is a trustee for its citizens. 
 It is bound to assert, maintain, and pro- 
 mote their rights and their interests. Its 
 first duty is to them ; it must not, 
 without their express sanction, practise 
 charity or benevolence to other nations 
 at their expense. It is to guard also 
 their honour and see that their voice in 
 the counsels of the world receives the 
 respect which is its due. But it is to 
 
GREAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER 29 
 
 exercise these functions with a due 
 regard to the rights and legitimate 
 interests of other nations. It is to 
 observe not only international law but 
 international morals — and even inter- 
 national manners. It is to respect the 
 national life and the freedom of its 
 neighbours. Though vigilant in its own 
 cause, it is yet to be a good member 
 of the community of nations. 
 
 Something like this, perhaps, is what 
 an average citizen of a free and civi- 
 lized country expects of his Government 
 in dealing with other civilized countries. 
 The case of barbarous countries, with 
 their peculiar (and very difficult) moral 
 problems, need not here detain us. As 
 between civilized nations something like 
 this is, if not a realized standard, at 
 least a possible and perhaps not distant 
 ideal, something at which we have been 
 aiming and towards which we conceived 
 ourselves to be progressing — in spite of 
 occasional backslidings, of which we 
 have been very acutely conscious in the 
 case of our neighbours, and perhaps 
 
30 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 sometimes a little suspicious even as 
 regards our own proceedings. 
 
 But how stands Germany towards this 
 ideal — modern Germany, the German 
 Empire under Prussian hegemony and 
 Prussian inspiration? She gives it the 
 go-by altogether. She gives the go- 
 by to the rights of her neighbours . Per- 
 suaded apparently by her philosophers 
 and historians that she possesses a par- 
 ticular brand of " culture " which is far 
 superior to any other in the world, she 
 sees her duty towards the community 
 of nations as consisting solely in com- 
 pelling as many of them as she can to 
 become, willy-nilly, partakers of this 
 culture — in ** stamping [as General von 
 Bernhardi says] a great part of humanity 
 with the impress of the German spirit." 
 In the pursuit of this end war is, we 
 are told, not only a necessity but a duty, 
 a moral obligation and a condition of 
 national well-being. " The inevitable - 
 ness, the idealism, and the blessing of 
 war, as an indispensable and stimulating 
 law of development, must be repeatedly 
 
GKEAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER 31 
 
 emphasized." Might is the supreme 
 Right, victory the supreme and suffi- 
 cient justification. German culture must 
 spread. It can spread only through 
 German power. And German power 
 depends " on two points : firstly, how 
 many millions of men in the world speak 
 German ; secondly, how many of them 
 are politically members of the German 
 Empire." And there are not nearly 
 enough at present — in General von 
 Bernhardi's opinion. 
 
 Nothing limits the right to bring 
 about this German ideal. It is above 
 all other rights ; it is a Super-Right. 
 No plea of nationality, of freedom, of 
 long prescription, of the desire of the 
 governed, of international law, or of 
 express treaty can bind or overrule it. 
 On the contrary, it overrules them all. 
 Salus populij suprema lex. No doubt. 
 But the salvation of the German people 
 seems quite incompatible with the per- 
 manent or secure salvation of anybody 
 else ! 
 
 Well, you may call this new German 
 
32 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 ideal what you please. You may call 
 it grandiose and dazzling. You may call 
 it immoral and unscrupulous. If you 
 are at all acquainted with " cultures," 
 ancient and modern, which are not con- 
 ceived on the lines of this new German 
 *' culture," you may call it impudent and 
 absurd. But there is one thing you must 
 call this ideal, and that is — dangerous. 
 
 Such part of the globe as it cannot 
 make a German province it inevitably 
 makes an armed camp. 
 
 If proof of this be needed — though, 
 indeed, the proof of it starts to the eyes 
 of any nation that does not wish to 
 become a German province if it can 
 help it — let us go back to England's 
 " unpardonable blunder," and try to see 
 what would have happened if she had 
 not committed it — if, on the contrary, 
 she had supported the Southern States 
 against the North. Of course we must 
 assume — though it is a considerable 
 assumption — that her intervention would 
 have been successful, that with her help 
 the Southern States would have sue- 
 
GREAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER 33 
 
 ceeded in establishing and maintaining 
 their independence. As a result, where 
 there are now the United States of 
 America, there would be two inde- 
 pendent nations — and of course, on 
 German principles, armed nations, each 
 trying to be stronger than the other, 
 to get the better of the other, perhaps 
 to impose {more Gertnanlco) their 
 " culture " on the other. Herein, says 
 General von Bernhardi, would lie the 
 triumph of British policy. The Northern 
 nation and the Southern nation, as busy 
 with one another as were the proverbial 
 Kilkenny cats, would have no surplus 
 time or energy to spend in interfering 
 with the designs or the prosperity of 
 Great Britain. The North might hate, 
 but she would be impotent. The South 
 might forget her gratitude (the General 
 cannot afford, on his principles, to rely 
 on national gratitude), but she would 
 have her hands full all the same. 
 
 But still— is the General quite so right 
 as he thinks? Could England be sure 
 of being able to stand by smiling — and 
 
34 THE. NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 raking in the dollars? If gratitude can 
 be forgotten, so can an old quarrel — 
 when it pays to forget it. Would the 
 British Government be safe in ignoring 
 the chance that some day the North 
 would say to the South : ** Our profit 
 doesn't lie in keeping up this old 
 quarrel or in worrying one another. 
 Let us do a deal. You shall be free 
 to * expand ' as much as you like south- 
 wards — in Mexico, in Central America, 
 where you will down there. In return 
 let us be free to expand northwards. 
 We shall both find that a much better 
 game than cutting one another's throats 
 for England's profit " ? 
 
 If England did sufficient justice to 
 America's common sense to conceive of 
 such an arrangement as even possible, 
 what must be her imperative safeguard 
 against the possibility? There is only 
 one answer : an armed Canada — Canada 
 armed to the teeth along her immense 
 frontier, armed on the Great Lakes, and, 
 pending at least a fuller growth of her 
 strength, demanding and engrossing no 
 
GREAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER 35 
 
 small part of the resources of the Mother 
 Country for her defence. 
 
 Whether this development would be 
 better for England than the present 
 state of affairs I will not discuss. I 
 think I hardly need. Anyhow, it is 
 enough for my purpose to point out by 
 this example whither Bernhardian prin- 
 ciples and policy tend. 
 
 There are two friendly peoples now 
 on the continent of North America. If 
 England had not committed her " un- 
 pardonable blunder," there would have 
 been three armed camps. 
 
 So the new German ideal works out 
 in this example. And it would work 
 out in the same way in others. The 
 nation that will not be a German 
 province must be an armed camp. 
 
 When the free nations realize this, 
 they will make their choice between the 
 two ideals of national policy in inter- 
 national affairs which are to-day pre- 
 sented for their consideration. 
 
Ill 
 
 PAPER BULWARKS 
 
 SURELY no statesman holding high 
 and responsible place ever let the cat 
 out of the bag so completely as the 
 German Imperial Chancellor in his now 
 world-famous phrase about the " scrap 
 of paper " ! 
 
 Of course the appearance of the 
 animal caused no surprise in Germany 
 —no surprise, at least, to the enthusiastic 
 disciples of Treitschke and Bernhardi, 
 who number, as Professor Cramb tells 
 us, their tens of thousands in Germany. 
 They knew the colour of the animal quite 
 well beforehand ; they knew what its 
 claws were like—to say nothing of its 
 whiskers, which must surely be pictured 
 with a truly Imperial upward twist- 1 
 Cats of the same colour stalk through 
 
 36 
 
PAPER BULWARKS 37 
 
 the writings of their school of thought. 
 *' Neutrality is a paper bulwark," says 
 Bernhardi. Treaties hold good rebus 
 sic stantibus— which, if you drag it 
 from what Gibbon calls *' the decent 
 obscurity of a learned language," means 
 *' while perfectly convenient." No, the 
 colour of the Chancellor's cat was no 
 surprise to them. They were quite 
 familiar with the breed. 
 
 But they are surprised— genuinely 
 surprised, I believe, though at first 
 sight it seems difficult to believe — that 
 anybody else should feel differently. 
 They are so imbued with the virtue of 
 their own doctrine — with its ** religion 
 of valour " and its *' return to Odin," 
 and so forth— that they are unable to 
 understand how it can be questioned 
 save by fools, hypocrites, or cowards. 
 They do not think the British fools ; 
 they do think them hypocrites ; they do 
 think them cowards— or did. And thus 
 in their eyes the position we profess as 
 to Belgian neutrality is abundantly 
 explained. 
 
38 THE NEW (GEKMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 But there are signs that they are 
 beginning to see that the colour and 
 claws of the Chancellor's cat are rather 
 alarming to other people — rather alarm- 
 ing, or at least rather startling, to the 
 free peoples, large and small ; rather 
 questionable to men and women who 
 have not returned to Odin, but still take 
 their standards from another source of 
 religious and ethical inspiration. So 
 there is an attempt to put rather a 
 different colour on the cat, perhaps to 
 thrust it back into the bag — half-way 
 back, anyhow, so that claws and 
 whiskers may be hidden, even if the 
 colour remains obstinately apparent. 
 Accordingly, arguments of other than 
 the plain Treitschke-Bernhardi order are 
 adduced by German writers and their 
 apologists. 
 
 One of them takes the familiar 
 tu quoque form— the old " You're 
 another I " of our childish days. If 
 Germany had not violated the neutrality 
 of Belgium, France and Great Britain 
 would have. 
 
PAPER BULWARKS 39 
 
 As to this, it may be observed first 
 — and the remark apphes to both Powers 
 — that such counter-charges are easy to 
 bring — so easy that they carry no 
 weight, unless evidence in support of 
 them is produced. Such evidence the 
 German Government has declared itself 
 to possess. It has been challenged to 
 produce it. Until it does so, the pre- 
 sumption would seem to be that this 
 retort is designed for consumption by 
 those, in Germany itself and in neutral 
 countries, whose stomachs find the un- 
 diluted doctrine of the " scrap of paper " 
 rather strong meat, difficult of digestion 
 and threatening, perhaps, after-effects of 
 an unpleasant order. 
 
 But with regard to Great Britain, at 
 least, we may say more than this. The 
 charge, if advanced in good faith and 
 sincerity, shows an astonishing ignor- 
 ance of the state of opinion in this 
 country. It is safe to say that no British 
 Government (and, I may add in passing, 
 least of all a Liberal Government, de- 
 pending so largely as it does on pacific 
 
40 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 opinion and on the support of the friends 
 of the smaller nations) would or could 
 have taken such a step. It would 
 almost certainly have been suicidal to 
 the Government itself. It would cer- 
 tainly have rent public opinion in twain 
 and fatally impaired the support which 
 the nation at large now accords enthu- 
 siastically to the policy of His Majesty's 
 Government. It would, in the eyes of 
 the greater part of the nation — I believe 
 in the eyes of practically the whole 
 nation — have stamped on our friendship 
 with France a shameful and fatal stain. 
 We could not have fought the war in 
 good heart after it. 
 
 Let us pass to another argument 
 employed by the apologists, and de- 
 serving of notice for its ingenuity at 
 least. The " scrap of paper " — or, in 
 other and more formal language, the 
 Quintuple Treaty of London (April 19, 
 1839) between Great Britain, Austria, 
 France, Russia, and Prussia on the one 
 hand, and the Netherlands on the other 
 — was not, it is said, in its true nature 
 
PAPER BULWARKS 41 
 
 and essence a Treaty with Belgium, but 
 a Treaty about Belgium. The only 
 rights or obligations created by it were 
 mutual rights and obligations between 
 the contracting parties. These came to 
 an end, ipso facto, with the existence 
 of a state of war between the contract- 
 ing parties. And Belgium was left quite 
 out in the cold 1 
 
 This somewhat technical argument 
 takes us a long way from the beautiful 
 simplicity of the " scrap -of -paper " 
 doctrine. But it is worth a moment's 
 examination . 
 
 What does Article VII of the Quin- 
 tuple Treaty say ? " Belgium shall 
 form a State independent and perpetu- 
 ally neutral. It is under obligation to 
 observe neutrality towards all other 
 States." 
 
 Now it cannot be denied that Belgium 
 was in form a signatory to the Treaty 
 with the five Powers. But more than 
 this : in substance also she was plainly 
 a party, and for the reason that the 
 Treaty not only grants her a right — the 
 
42 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 right of immunity from attack— but 
 imposes on her an obhgation — the obli- 
 gation not to attack others. If she 
 observes the obhgation, she is entitled 
 to rely on the right. A promise is given 
 to her on a consideration. She has 
 conformed to her obligation ; she has 
 carried out the condition. With what 
 face is she now to be told that the right 
 is illusory because other parties to the 
 Treaty have quarrelled? 
 
 Moreover, against what contingency 
 was the Treaty directed? In what case 
 was its operation contemplated? Pre- 
 cisely in the case which arose in 1870 
 and which has now arisen again in 
 1914 — the case of war between two 
 or more of the contracting parties. It 
 is a pretty argument which tells us that 
 a Treaty is abrogated by the existence 
 of the precise state of affairs which it 
 was intended to meet, and under which 
 alone it could have any virtue or effect 1 
 Whatever apologists in a tight place 
 may be forced to do, statesmen do not 
 stultify themselves in that fashion. 
 
PAPER BULWARKS 43 
 
 Finally, if Germany either would or 
 could have relied on any such self- 
 destructive plea as this, she has a 
 witness against her, whom she herself 
 cannot refuse to hear, whom the rest 
 of the world was accustomed to hear 
 with a deference not unmingled with 
 apprehension. That witness is the 
 greatest of Dr. von Bethmann-Hollweg's 
 predecessors. 
 
 When in 1870 trouble came about 
 between France and Prussia, Great 
 Britain took a very definite line about 
 the neutrality of Belgium. She plainly 
 intimated that, in the case of one 
 belligerent respecting, while the other 
 violated, that neutrality, the United 
 Kingdom would take part with the 
 beUigerent respecting the neutrality 
 against the other. And treaties in 
 this sense were made with France and 
 with Prussia — in which latter, by the 
 way, the King of Prussia expressed him- 
 self as being desirous of " recording by 
 a solemn act his fixed determination 
 to maintain the independence and 
 
U THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 neutrality of Belgium as provided in 
 Article VII of the Treaty signed in 
 London on the 19th April, 1839" — 
 our old friend the *' scrap of paper." 
 
 But what is important for our point 
 is that Prince Bismarck, acting for his 
 Sovereign, not only gave assurances to 
 and made a treaty with Great Britain. 
 Me gave assurances to Belgium also. 
 And the terms of the assurance are 
 worth setting out here : — 
 
 Berlin, 
 le 22 JuiUet, 1870. 
 M. LE MiNISTRE,— 
 
 Confirmant mes assurances ver- 
 bales, j'ai I'honneur de vous donner 
 par ecrit la declaration, surabon- 
 dante en presence des Trait^s en 
 vigueur, que la Confederation du 
 Nord et ses allies respecteront la 
 neutralite de la Belgique, bien en- 
 tendu qu'elle sera respect^e par 
 I'autre partie bellig^rante. 
 Agreez, etc., 
 
 Von Bismarck 
 Baron Nothomb 
 
PAPER BULWARKS 45 
 
 Which being translated runs : ** Con- 
 firming my verbal assurance, I have the 
 honour to give a declaration in writing 
 — superfluous having regard to the 
 Treaties in existence — that the Con- 
 federation of the North and its allies 
 will respect the neutrality of Belgium, 
 it being well understood that that 
 neutrality will be respected by the 
 other belligerent Power." 
 
 And who was this Baron Nothomb, 
 to whom this assurance is given? Not 
 the representative of any of the Powers 
 signing the Treaty, but the Belgian 
 Minister In Berlin. 
 
 So that our witness, Prince Bismarck 
 himself, plainly recognized two things :— 
 
 1 . The validity of the Treaty of 
 
 1839- 
 
 2. The fact that not only the signa- 
 tory Powers but also Belgium had a 
 right to ask and receive assurances that 
 the Treaty would be respected, that her 
 right would be protected if her obliga- 
 tion were observed. 
 
 What was Prince Bismarck's view in 
 
46 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 1870 is Great Britain's view in 19 14. 
 Perhaps that is enough to say about it. 
 
 But since we have been talking about 
 1870 it may be of interest to set out 
 another document dating from the same 
 time. It is not long, and recent events 
 give it interest. We have seen what 
 the German Imperial Chancellor thinks 
 of the Treaty ; we have seen what his 
 great predecessor thought of it ; let us 
 see how the Belgians themselves looked 
 at it in that same year 1870. 
 
 Here is the copy of an address from 
 the Mayor and Communal Council of 
 the City of Brussels to Queen Victoria, 
 dated the 30th August, 1870. It 
 relates to Great Britain's intimation — 
 already referred to — that if one belli- 
 gerent respected, while the other 
 violated, Belgium's neutrality, she would 
 take part with the former against the 
 latter : — 
 
PAPER BULWARKS 47 
 
 MAYOR OF BRUSSELS TO QUEEN 
 VICTORIA 
 
 30TH August, 1870 
 [ Translation . ] 
 
 Your Majesty,— 
 
 The great and noble people over 
 whose destinies you preside has 
 just given a further proof of its 
 benevolent sentiments towards our 
 country. 
 
 In the midst of the grave events 
 which shake the foundations of 
 ancient Europe the Government of 
 Your Majesty, conscious of the 
 obligations contracted by the Sig- 
 natories to the Treaty of 1839, ^^s 
 taken the initiative in approaching 
 the Powers which are parties to 
 that Treaty, with a view to obtain- 
 ing a new and efficacious confirma- 
 tion of the neutrality of Belgium. 
 
 The voice of the English nation 
 has been heard above the din of 
 
48 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 arms : it has asserted the principles 
 of justice and right. 
 
 Next to the unalterable attach- 
 ment of the Belgian people to their 
 independence, the liveliest senti- 
 ment which fills their hearts is that 
 of an imperishable gratitude. 
 
 We think that Your Majesty and 
 the people of Great Britain will 
 value the evidence of their grati- 
 tude now offered in the name of 
 a nation, free and prosperous, 
 which has cultivated with wisdom 
 and moderation for nearly half a 
 century institutions similar to those 
 of the United Kingdom. 
 
 The Municipal Council of the 
 Capital express the unanimous 
 sentiments of the population in 
 assuring Your Majesty of its pro- 
 found and respectful gratitude. 
 
 Such is the light in which the people 
 of Belgium looked at the ** scrap of 
 paper." And if the terms in which the 
 Mayor of Brussels refers to the people 
 
PAPER BULWARKS 49 
 
 of Great Britain are so handsome that 
 an Englishman blushes to drag them 
 from the archives of the past and repeat 
 them here — well, it can only be said 
 that it is easy to suppose circumstances 
 under which he would have had to 
 blush over them much more severely, 
 and under which the Mayor of Brussels 
 could not have used to King George 
 the words which his predecessor ad- 
 dressed to Queen Victoria. He must 
 have used words extremely different — 
 and better, perhaps, left to the 
 imagination . 
 
 After all, it is pleasant to think that 
 the King and people of Great Britain 
 could still look that old Mayor of 
 Brussels in the face. As in 1870, so 
 now they are giving a new and, please 
 God, an efficacious confirmation of the 
 neutrality of Belgium — so that some day, 
 before long perhaps, the present Mayor 
 of Brussels may endorse some of the 
 things his predecessor said. And praise 
 from the gallant M. Max would be 
 praise indeed I 
 
IV 
 EMPIRE— AND LIBERTY? 
 
 THERE are many things which 
 General von Bernhardi, whose book 
 is by now familiar to most of us by 
 repute at least, is willing to promise the 
 German people if only they will fall 
 down and worship the ideal of national 
 life and policy which he sets before 
 them. It is true that the things belong 
 for the moment to other people ; but 
 that can soon be put right. The fruit 
 — French plums or British peaches — is 
 ripe ; it needs only a strong and resolute 
 hand to pluck it. 
 
 But amongst all his promises there 
 is one omission . I do not know whether 
 or how far it may seem a remarkable 
 omission in German eyes ; to an 
 
 50 
 
EMPIRE— AND LIBERTY? 51 
 
 Englishman it certainly appears so, 
 and, as I should suppose, would so 
 appear to a Frenchman or an American. 
 Amongst all the rewards of victory 
 which he dangles before the eyes of the 
 conquering Germans, the irresistible race 
 which is to have so much to say about 
 other people's affairs, we look in vain 
 for any promise that they are to have 
 what an American, a Frenchman, or an 
 Englishman would consider an adequate 
 control of their own ! 
 
 On the contrary, General von Bern- 
 hardi discourages any such idea — and 
 that in round terms. " No people," he 
 remarks bluntly, " is so little qualified 
 as the German to direct its own desti- 
 nies, whether in a parliamentarian or 
 in a republican Constitution ; to no 
 people is the customary liberal pattern 
 so inappropriate as to us. A glance 
 at the Reichstag will show how com- 
 pletely this conviction, which is forced 
 on us by a study of German history, 
 holds good to-day." 
 
 No people so little qualified to direct 
 
52 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 its own destinies 1 An extreme saying ! 
 Not even those naughty Servians? Not 
 the Turks? Not the Albanians, who so 
 failed to appreciate a German prince? 
 If what the General says be true, it 
 would suggest to an Englishman — and 
 not less to a citizen of other countries 
 whose peoples do " direct their own 
 destinies " — that the German " culture '* 
 has broken down somewhere. Because 
 to such a citizen — even as to an 
 Athenian of old — a " culture " that 
 leaves the citizens unfit for and in- 
 capable of self-government fails in the 
 first and most vital function of a national 
 culture . 
 
 No doubts on this score afflict the 
 General. He goes on to point out, quite 
 contentedly, that " the German people 
 has always been incapable of great acts 
 for the common interest except under 
 the irresistible pressure of external con- 
 ditions, as in the rising of 1813, or 
 under the leadership of powerful per- 
 sonalities. . . ." " We must take care, 
 then," he proceeds, ** that such men are 
 
EMPIRE— AND LIBERTY? 53 
 
 assured the possibility of acting with a 
 confident and free hand to accomphsh 
 great ends through and for our people. 
 Within these limits it is in harmony 
 with the German character to allow 
 personality to have a free course 
 for the fullest development of all 
 individual forces and capacities, of 
 all spiritual, scientific, and artistic 
 aims." 
 
 It sounds very fine. What does it 
 come to? Powerful Personalities, acting 
 with confident and free hands, are to 
 do the governing — to direct the desti- 
 nies — while the German people, of all 
 the most unfitted for this task, are to 
 develop their capacities in intellectual 
 pursuits " within these limits " — that is 
 to say, subject to not interfering with 
 the confident and free hands of the 
 Powerful Personalities. That is put 
 forward as the ideal for the nation whose 
 ideals are to direct and govern as much 
 of the world as possible. 
 
 What is this but the watchword — or 
 the catchword — of every *' benevolent 
 
54 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 despotism," of every '* enlightened aris- 
 tocracy," since history began? ** Occupy 
 yourselves with the arts and sciences — 
 leave politics to me," has been the 
 command of the despot (whether an 
 individual or a caste) through all the 
 ages. It is the command of General 
 von Bernhardi and his caste to his 
 countrymen to-day. Will they — do they 
 — accept it? 
 
 A citizen of a free and self-governing 
 country — in the full sense in which an 
 American, a Frenchman, or an English- 
 man (to name no other nationalities, 
 though, happily, there are many others 
 who could be named) understands 
 these words— finds it hard to believe 
 that they do— at all events, that 
 they will — accept it permanently, for 
 good and all. "You cannot govern 
 yourselves — you are the most hopeless 
 of all nations at that. But we — the 
 Powerful Prussian Personalities — will 
 govern you with confident and free 
 hands, and govern half the world for 
 you into the bargain. Only keep 
 
EMPIRE— AND LIBERTY? 55 
 
 your hands off politics— and we will 
 fill them with the rich fruits of 
 world-power ! " 
 
 It is a splendid bribe ; that cannot 
 be denied — panem et circenses with a 
 vengeance ! — and offered, not this time 
 to the demoralized mob of a decadent 
 capital, as the Caesars offered " bread 
 and games " to the rabble of Rome, but 
 to the whole of a civilized, cultured, in- 
 tellectual people — to the people who, 
 however incapable of directing their own 
 destinies, are chosen by the German God 
 to control the destinies of so many other 
 people ! 
 
 A big bribe, indeed ! Nobody can 
 appreciate its magnitude better than 
 the nations which (if all goes well) 
 are to have the privilege of pro- 
 viding the wherewithal to enable the 
 General and his friends to redeem their 
 promises. 
 
 Can the General and his friends 
 " deliver the goods " ? Will the German 
 people, dazzled as they now seem to be 
 by the glittering prize held before their 
 
56 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 eyes, be permanently content with the 
 barter of liberty at home for Empire 
 abroad? I will not attempt to answer 
 these questions. Time must give the 
 answer — time and the stricken field. 
 Let us assume the answers that the 
 General would like. In the words of 
 his famous alternative, let it be — for 
 the sake of this argument— world-power 
 for Germany, and not downfall ; and 
 we will stifle the mild suggestion 
 that a via media was really open to 
 Germany if she had been content to 
 take it. 
 
 On this hypothesis, then, what is the 
 look-out for the rest of the world, and 
 especially for that " great part of 
 humanity " which is to be " stamped 
 with the impress of the German spirit " 
 —that spirit which, among its other 
 manifestations, manifests a willingness 
 to accept Bernhardi's bribe on Bern- 
 hardi's terms? 
 
 Well, anyhow, the great part of 
 humanity, when duly stamped, can 
 hardly expect to be better off than 
 
EMPIRE— AND LIBERTY? 57 
 
 the Germans themselves. What is sauce 
 for the conquering goose (I mean 
 no disrespect by recalling the old 
 proverb) will certainly be sauce for 
 the conquered gander. If the home 
 Empire is unfit to direct its own 
 destinies, the outlying dominions will 
 not be allowed to direct theirs. That 
 seems plain without much argument — 
 indeed to suggest anything else might 
 well set the home Empire on a recon- 
 sideration of its bargain. What the out- 
 lying dominions— the bases of the world- 
 power — must expect is clearly an export 
 of Powerful Personalities to direct their 
 destinies with confident and free hands. 
 Other Powers send out Governors : the 
 British Empire does. But the German 
 Empire overseas is not to be like the 
 British Empire overseas ; for this latter 
 we know from Bernhardi's master — the 
 great Treitschke himself — is a sham, 
 " wholly a sham, wholly rotten." These 
 Powerful Personalities will not be the 
 representatives of a Constitutional 
 Monarch, presiding over but not ruling 
 
58 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 free and self-governing communities. 
 They will be of the same type as the 
 rulers at home. The bargain which is 
 good enough for the home Empire 
 will be good enough for the German 
 Dominions overseas. 
 
 They promise to be pleasant, restful 
 neighbours, these German Dominions 
 overseas, with their destinies directed by 
 Powerful Personalities trained in Bern- 
 hardian ideas and Bernhardian views of 
 the German " Mission." Their Right 
 will be Might, their Religion will be 
 Valour, their Treaties — but we know by 
 now all about that. They are to 
 be Little Berlins — the description has 
 already been applied by a writer of 
 authority to the German colonies exist- 
 ing before the war. They are to be 
 reproductions of the Great Berlin, of the 
 German Empire at home — the German 
 Empire of Bernhardi's and Treitschke's 
 ideal — where the nation is the Army, aind 
 the Army is the nation, and war is a 
 moral obligation ; where the creed is 
 " Live dangerously " and the Beatitude 
 
EMPIRE— AND LIBERTY? 59 
 
 '* Blessed are the warmakers, for they 
 shall be called, if not the children of 
 Jahve, the children of Odin, who is 
 greater than Jahve." And it may be 
 supposed their Litany will run, " To 
 battle, and murder, and sudden death. 
 Good Lord, deliver us " — and, a fortiori^ 
 " our enemies ! " 
 
 One closes General von Bernhardi's 
 book with a strange mixture of feelings. 
 Its attitude and its teaching — the whole 
 spirit which informs and animates it — 
 seem at once so formidable and so pre- 
 posterous. It is like some nightmare 
 in which everything is turned upside 
 down, all values changed, all standards 
 reversed — a sort of " Alice in Wonder- 
 land " political faith. If it were all only 
 a bad dream ! And surely that is what 
 we may hope and pray that it is for 
 the German peoples themselves, a bad 
 dream from which they will one day 
 awake — awake to repudiate Bernhardi's 
 bribe and Bernhardi's bargain, to take 
 their own destinies into their own 
 hands, and to assume their proper and 
 
60 THE NEW (GERMAN) TESTAMENT 
 
 honourable place in the community of 
 nations . 
 
 Such an awakening must, of a surety, 
 be forced on Germany some day — 
 whether from without or from within. 
 The hope and the faith in such an 
 awakening are the silver lining to the 
 dark cloud of strife which broods over 
 the world to-day. 
 
 But whatever our feelings may and 
 must be at the present time about the 
 nation to which he belongs, I cannot 
 part from the General himself wholly 
 in anger. He is, all said and done, a 
 gallant controversialist. His is the 
 massed frontal attack ; there are no 
 subtle attempts to outflank your prin- 
 ciples or get round your apprehensions. 
 He goes full tilt at them — horse, foot, 
 and artillery. There never was such 
 a man for saying things which you 
 might imagine that he would be content 
 with thinking — never such a man for 
 telling you exactly what you may expect 
 if he has his way with you ! In virtue 
 of these characteristics he is very 
 
EMPIRE— AND LIBERTY? 61 
 
 valuable at this juncture of affairs. 
 Every man and woman of independent 
 mind should read, mark, learn, and in- 
 wardly digest him. The wider circula- 
 tion his book obtains and the more 
 students he has, the better will the world 
 understand what this war is really about, 
 and what turns on the issue of it. 
 
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