228 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



appeared like bafifling tracks to lead us off from the broader principles. 

 But the artillery of war is shooting the woods away, and though our 

 desolation and the loss of our best are appalling, and smoke still 

 hangs about those of us who are left, we can by day see certain main 

 roads leading in the right direction and by night we can get a glimpse 

 of primal virtues that shine aloft alike stars. We shall hereafter have 

 much clearer convictions than formerly, even though the change is 

 not yet very evident. Surely we shall never need to ask again whether 

 government can be based on force alone. Surely the majesty of law 

 is already rehabilitated in part. Surely we now^ know that progress is 

 rooted in righteousness. Surely we are convinced that the success of 

 education is to be measured by the clarity with which we grasp the 

 fact that life is set in a kingdom of law and order. 



It will, however, serve our purpose to review, even at the cost of 

 repeating much that has now grown commonplace, the national ideas 

 of the chief belligerent nations, more particularly with the object of 

 reaching some conclusions as to their bearing upon our own standards 

 in education. 



There is no difficulty in discovering what Germany has sought 

 from her education during the period in which the Empire was being 

 constructed. Much has been published upon the subject, but two 

 books written by men belonging to widely separated social strata 

 stand out, and when they agree, they may well be taken as setting 

 forth the aims and standards of the German people. The first of 

 these is "Imperial Germany," by Prinz von Biilow, rewritten and 

 greatly enlarged in May, 1916, and the second is "Central Europe," by 

 Naumann, published in 1915. Little need be said of such a well- 

 known person as Biilow. He is a Prussian Junker, arrogant, of course, 

 but polished by his sojourn in society more refined than that of his 

 own country. The book itself is unidealistic, sombre, almost demonic 

 in its belief in ruthless force as the conserving element in a state. 

 Biilow is a great pagan intellectualised and efficient, without hope 

 for a different future and content to accept the present which Prussia 

 has created, the work for the most part of his hero Bismarck, and to 

 dispense with righteousness in the politics of a world in which "ability 

 is the only thing that tells." He grimly prides himself upon the fact 

 that "the stony path of Prussia's continental policy is marked by 

 blood and iron, and over every decisive success the standards of the 

 Prussian arm}^ flutter." 



Naumann was a Lutheran pastor, and became interested in social 

 questions, travelled widely in Central Europe, knows what ordinary 

 people are thinking about, sympathises with them, and is now a 

 member of the Reichstag. His book, so Professor Ashley tells us in his 



