246 ADDKESS DELIVEKED AT 



has felt the scars of the battle in which many of you are 

 now engaged. Duty has been mentioned as my motive 

 force. In Germany you hear this word much more 

 frequently than the word ( glory/ The philosophers of 

 Germany were men of the loftiest moral tone. In fact, 

 they were preachers of religion as much as expounders 

 of philosophy. Shall we say that from them the land 

 took its moral colour ? It would be to a great extent 

 true to say so ; but it should be added that the German 

 philosophers were themselves products of the German 

 soil, probably deriving the basis of their moral qualities 

 from a period anterior to their philosophy. Let me 

 tell you an illustrative anecdote. In the summer of 

 1871 I met at Pontresina two Prussian officers a cap- 

 tain and a lieutenant who had come there to recruit 

 themselves after the hurts and sufferings of the war. 

 We had many walks and many talks together. It was 

 particularly pleasant to listen to the way in which they 

 spoke of the kindness and the sympathy shown by the 

 French peasantry towards the suffering German soldiers, 

 whether wounded or broken down upon the march. I 

 once asked them how the German troops behaved when 

 going into battle. Did they cheer and encourage each 

 other ? The reply I received was this : 'Never in our ex- 

 perience has the cry, " Wir miissen siegen " [We must 

 conquer], been heard from German soldiers ; but in a 

 hundred instances we have heard them resolutely ex- 

 claim, " Wir miissen unser Pflicht thun " [We must do 

 our duty].' It was a sense of duty rather than love of 

 glory that strengthened those men, and filled them with 

 an invincible heroism. We in England have always 

 liked the iron ring of the word ' duty.' It was Nelson's 

 talisman at Trafalgar. It was the guiding-star of 

 Wellington. When, on the death of Wellington, he 

 wrote his immortal 'Ode,' our Laureate poured into 



