THE EMOTION OF THE IDEAL 135 



the whole fabric was based and in which the vitality 

 of the whole conception lay. 



This fact already remarked on as regards the 

 schools is particularly in evidence in the Emperor's 

 speeches on almost all matters. In the Emperor's 

 addresses to the recruits of the army and navy on 

 the occasions of the annual swearings in and in his 

 addresses tc the army there was mingled even with 

 that note of appeal to the primal instinct in man 

 which on one occasion l drew severe condemnation 

 from Tolstoy, the continuous note of the neces- 

 sity for sacrifice, duty, discipline, devotion, iron 

 obedience in the service of the national ideals. On 

 wider public occasions side by side with the extra- 

 ordinary mixture of the ethics of Nietzsche and 

 Haeckel with the ethics of Christianity it was still the 

 inculcation of the spirit of the effort and the sacrifice 

 needful in the service of the national ideals which 

 constituted the most characteristic note in the 

 Emperor's addresses ' To us, the German people, 

 great ideals are a lasting possession ... the foster- 

 ing of the ideal is the greatest work of Culture." * 



It is impossible to overestimate the influence of 

 the emotion of the ideal in such a case. It is the 

 effect of the capacity for sacrifice which it produced 



x The Emperor's Speech, Potsdam, 23 November 1891, on 

 swearing in recruits. 



Speech, Berlin, 18 December 1901, 



