History in Handy Volumes 447 



what is taking place to-day. It is the history of the rise 

 and progress of the Prussian State and the creation of 

 Germany under its hegemony. 



In order to understand it, it is necessary, but it is also 

 sufficient, to read three books. They are: L Histoire de 

 Mon Temps, by Frederick II, called Frederick the Great; 

 Ma Mission en Prusse, by Benedetti, published in 1871; 

 and Gedanken und Erinnerungen, by Prince Bismarck. The 

 Tauchnitz translation of this work is very good. As a com- 

 mentary in English on the later history nothing is more 

 instructive or better reading than Friendship's Garland, by 

 Matthew Arnold, published in 1870. 



In the first of these works the King of Prussia explains 

 with perfect frankness the methods by which he succeeded 

 in extending Prussian territory. He began by perfecting 

 his own military forces, then he awaited the opportunity 

 which the Sovereign of the coveted territory was sure to 

 give him sooner or later, and when the moment arrived he 

 had the courage to use his whole might in taking advantage 

 of it. Bismarck's Gedanken und Erinnerungen tells exactly 

 the same tale, and the light thrown on the same events 

 by Benedetti during his mission in Prussia, which covered 

 the Austrian War of 1866 and terminated with the outbreak 

 of the Franco-German War in 1870, is most illuminating. 

 After studying these three books there is no difficulty in 

 perceiving how it is that Europe presents the aspect that 

 it does. 



1916. Although the present war is still being waged with 

 all its fury it has been going on for over two years, and its 

 history is minutely recorded, de die in diem, by the News- 

 papers of the world. Of these daily reports, the historian of 

 the war will naturally go to the records in the newspapers of 

 neutral nations, and, among them, to those having the greatest 

 resources at their back. Among these I can speak from 

 experience only of one ; namely, the New York Times. 



The daily reports cabled by its correspondents on both 

 sides, and from all the different seats of war, in a week would 

 equal in bulk all those furnished to the Illustrated London 



