THE GERIMAN CASE 3 



of mankind there has been no cause so great as to 

 compel all its protagonists to honour, and no cause so 

 wanton and vainglorious that men have not died 

 for it. Human nature is better and worse than a 

 philosophical theory. 



Nor shall I be distracted by meditation on the 

 glorious results that the Germans expect to flow 

 from the establishment of a pax Germanica over the 

 greater part of the world — German civilization 

 reigning from the Urals to the Atlantic, from the 

 North Cape to the Mediterranean, the docile milhons 

 of Asia practising the goose-step, and happy Africa 

 playing Wagner and Strauss, syncopated for the 

 tom-tom. Great objects these, but a prospective 

 criminal very often intends to devote the proceeds 

 of his crime to ennobling the human race. This 

 branch of mental pathology has been amply illus- 

 trated by such barbarians as the English William 

 Shakespeare (in Richard III), and by the Russians 

 Tolstoi and Dostoevsky. But, although it requires 

 no further comment, Maximilian Harden's recent 

 statement is worth preserving : " And never was 

 there a war more just, never one the result of which 

 could bring such happiness as must this, even to the 

 conquered." 



Now let us turn to the German case. General 

 von Bernhardi, in his popular book, England as 

 Germany's Vassal, presents it most definitely. 

 " Wherever we look in nature," he writes, " we find 

 that war is a fundamental law of development. 

 This great verity, which has been recognized in past 

 ages, has been convincingly demonstrated in modern 

 times by Charles Darwin. He proved that nature 



