60 THE SCIENCE OF POWER 



ness and persistence. " We have now agreed/' 

 concludes Treitschke in one of his most important 

 lectures, " that war is just and moral, and that the 

 ideal of eternal peace is both unjust and immoral 

 and impossible." l 



The tendency to exalt, at the expense of society, 

 the absolute claim of the State thus founded on war, 

 went hand in hand with this development. It was 

 put in the most striking manner in a statement 

 quoted from Treitschke : " I have never in my life 

 given one thought to my duties to society ; I have 

 never in my life, by so much as one single thought, 

 neglected to consider my duty to the Prussian 

 State." 2 The intellect of Germany under the 

 lead of those at the head followed suit and set 

 itself almost as a body to justify and embody in 

 the State, first in Prussia and then in Germany, the 

 Darwinian conception of force. " The Seminars of 

 the German universities," says Professor Morgan, 

 " were the arsenals that forged the intellectual 

 weapons of the Prussian hegemony. They all 

 have this in common that they are merciless to 

 the claims of the small States whose existence 

 seemed to present an obstacle to Prussian aims." a 



1 Treitschke : his Life and Works, "Essay on International Law." 

 1 F. M. Hueffer, When Blood is their Argument, Pt. I. chap. iv. 

 8 The German War Book, translated by J. H. Morgan. Trans- 

 lator's Introduction, chap, iv. 



