324 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Delbruck, Prince Billow, and Naumann. He showed how in 

 the earlier period the State was considered as secondary to the 

 individual, and, the conception of man's inherent goodness being 

 high, government became in their eyes somewhat of a hindrance 

 to the development of individuality, and was looked upon almost 

 as a necessary evil. As these high ideals of mankind were found 

 to be an unpractical basis for a workable constitution, the 

 necessity of giving more authority to the State was recognised. 

 But Hegel, who first realised this need, made the mistake of 

 unduly exalting its majesty, placed the State in a kind of mystical 

 position over everything, and absolved it from moral relations 

 to its fellow States. From this time onward many of these 

 writers, in adopting these concepts, failed to see that the State 

 and Head of the State are after all but individuals ; and the 

 present catastrophe is therefore due to the error of carrying the 

 idea of State power to excess and of dropping altogether the 

 higher ideals of the past. It was Stahl who added to this error 

 the pernicious theory of Divine Right, which Treitschke and 

 Delbruck crystallised into the present system that crushes the 

 claim for popular rights almost out of existence. Mr. Gooch 

 seems to see in Naumann, the orator of the Freisinnig party, the 

 germ of a new era which will restore to the people of Germany 

 once more their rightful liberty. 



In the discussion which followed, Prof. Graham Wallace's 

 remarks are well worth recording. He said that, in these days 

 of hate and bitterness of which we were already so heartily sick, 

 we ought to be grateful to Mr. Gooch for giving us the chance 

 of loving and admiring. He pointed out that Germany has 

 suffered, and will suffer poignantly for all her mistakes ; that 

 she will feel the loss of her men and her trade very keenly ; and 

 that, if a real peace can come only when Germany thinks on 

 different lines, then, when all this turmoil is over and done with 

 it behoves us to wait lovingly and expectantly for her to return 

 to her former ideals. That these thoughts struck a note which 

 synchronised with the thoughts of the audience was abundantly 

 attested by their loud applause. Up to the present, however, there 

 is little sign that Prof. Wallace's prognostications will be verified. 



Science Among the Nations 



Prof. J. Arthur Thomson contributes an interesting article 

 to Knowledge (May 191 5) on the subject of German science, and 





