29 6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



greed, boastfulness, lies, dogmas, and indifference which tacitly 

 supported them ; you are accessories before the deed, and 

 after it ; it is especially you old men who rule the world who 

 have sent forth }^our nobler sons to die and your widowed 

 daughters to mourn : and yet you call yourselves men, rea- 

 soners, Christians, above the order of nature, inheritors of 

 immortality — gods ! . . . And mankind remains speechless 



Before the stony face of Time, 

 And look'd at by the silent stars. 



The Great Crime 



There is no doubt that the war was planned during the 

 last forty years in every detail of its infamy by the German 

 autocracy. The)'- said to themselves, We have smitten the 

 Danes, the Austrians, and the French, and we will smite the 

 rest of the world by the same tricks and in the same manner. 

 The world shall look upon us with admiration mingled with 

 fear. We shall be a thunder-bolt among the nations. There 

 shall be only three names written in history, Alexander, 

 Napoleon, and another. The God who befriends and com- 

 mands us will ultimately place us at his right hand. And, 

 they continue, our victory will also confer benefits upon us 

 and upon the world. We shall dominate the world, we shall 

 grow rich and strong, we shall have innumerable palaces, noble 

 cities, and gardens of pleasure for the poor, and grow wealthy 

 and fat and drink beer at ease. Nay, more than this, we shall 

 bring order and discipline into the world. Let us first, how- 

 ever, organise the victory. Success will excuse excess, and 

 victory, crime. Let us not be meticulous, punctilious, and 

 merciful. When we have conquered, the crown and the purple 

 will cover all our little doings. Our friend God will commend 

 us even for sins, since it is good to do evil that good may come 

 of it. But we must be careful at first, until we are ready. 

 We are surrounded by the silly sheep who shall be our victims 

 — let us therefore say that they are threatening us. Let us 

 be innocents whom they seek to murder for profit. Therefore 

 let us boast that though we seek no war, we are ready to 

 defend ourselves. At the same time we will cunningly prepare 

 treaties in order to lull the quarry as to our intentions. We 

 will call councils to regulate the rules of war. We will guar- 

 antee the independence of small nations whose territories we 



■ 



