War as the Ultima Ratio 147 



This brings us to another interesting phase of the 

 cataclysmic theory — the aberration of the ultima 

 ratio, which runs all through the philosophy of 

 force. The Imperial German Chancellor has 

 recently given it expression in a speech in the 

 Reichstag. This is the way it is phrased by 

 Professor Rossler: 



"War is the great examiner of humanity: it will 

 remain the ultima ratio for the judgment of 

 peoples."' 



This theory sounds very well, but what shall 

 we say when war pronounces within very short 

 intervals of time, judgments which are absolutely 

 contradictory? At Jena, Prussia is condemned; 

 seven years afterward, at Leipsic, it is France. 

 Moreover, Professor Rossler would be the last to 

 agree to submit to the verdict, if it is against his 

 own country. And finally, from an objective 

 point of view, it is impossible to maintain that in 

 war it is the most perfect nations which have 

 always triumphed. According to this doctrine, 

 we should have to say that the Romans were 

 superior to the Greeks, the Arabs to the Spanish, 

 the Danes to the English, the Mongols to the 

 Russians, the Abyssinians to the Italians, etc. 

 According to this doctrine, then, the nations 

 which have made the civilization of Europe would 

 all find themselves in the ranks of the "inferior," 

 in the class of those who ought to be destroyed 

 for the advancement of the human race. 



'Quoted by J. Lagorgette in Le role de la guerre, p. 305. 



