4 The Philosophy of Force 



towards ends which Christendom as a whole 

 pronounced "good": Kant and Fichte, Goethe 

 and Schiller stood for moral values upon which 

 Christendom as a whole was agreed. 



But as an incident of the protection of German 

 society from outside aggression — as a mere detail 

 of military protective measures — certain political 

 and military devices were introduced into the 

 German State ; a certain tool was adopted. At the 

 time of their introduction these changes were not 

 expected to alter the "ends" for which Germans 

 lived their lives; nor was it anticipated that they 

 would lead to any reconsideration of moral values. 



But the introduction of those changes — that 

 tool — has recast the moral values of German 

 society from top to bottom and seems in a fair 

 way to recast the moral values of European 

 society as a whole — including our own. In other 

 words, the danger which Mommsen foresaw for 

 Prussia is a danger which now menaces all Western 

 civilization. A generation ago Mommsen said: 



Have a care lest in this country, which has been at 

 once a power in arms and a power in intelligence, the 

 intelligence should vanish and nothing but the pure 

 military State should remain.^ 



Those things for which Kant and Fichte, Goethe 

 and Schiller stood have been rejected or profoundly 

 revised by this kind of process : 



' Quoted by Professor Hicks in the Hihhert Journal, October, 

 1914. CJ. also W. H. Dawson, Modern Germany, p. 3. 



