INTRODUCTION xix 



What use will your great fleets be when we are 

 fighting you in the wilds of Africa ? The history of 

 the greatest struggle the world has yet seen must be 

 written before long, and it may fall to a German poet, 

 with the goodwill of the victor to the vanquished, to 

 sing the praises of a British Montcalm." 



I think that everyone must agree as to the re- 

 markable character of these notes, written thirty 

 years ago. Had I been a student of international 

 politics, a historian or a journalist, it would be 

 possible to discount something from them. But I 

 was none of these things, and wrote them down 

 among trivial personal incidents, only because I was 

 powerfully impressed to find that a great country 

 was preparing for war as the natural avenue to her 

 future. When I was arranging the lectures that are 

 the occasion of this little book, I remembered 

 vaguely my Berlin notes, and to my great delight 

 found them. On re-reading them, I am still more 

 impressed, and cannot doubt but that so long ago as 

 in 1884, when there were no clouds between England 

 and Germany, the German nation, not merely a war 

 party, or a political school, had foreseen and was 

 preparing herself for a struggle to the death with 

 England. 



Before I proceed with this personal narrative, let 

 me repeat that I am merely trying to show how the 

 ripple made by the great affairs of Germany affected 

 the mind of a single person. I lived in Oxford from 

 1884 until 1893, first as an undergraduate and then 

 as assistant professor, and so forth. Nearly every 

 year I spent some time in Germany, for the most 

 part either in Leipzig or Dresden. But two things 



