96 HAS SCIENCE DISCOVERED GOD? 



instability of our political leadership, as well as the 

 impersonal character of party alignments. 



I believe that those in the United States have hit 

 upon the right idea. They choose a President for a 

 reasonable length of time and give him enough power 

 to acquit himself properly of his responsibilities. In 

 the German Government, on the other hand, I like the 

 state's more extensive care of the individual when he 

 is ill or unemployed. What is truly valuable in our 

 bustle of life is not the nation, I should say, but the 

 creative and Impressionable individuality, the person- 

 ality — he who produces the noble and sublime while 

 the common herd remains dull in thought and insen- 

 sible in feeling. 



This subject brings me to that vilest offspring of the 

 herd mind — the odious militia. The man who enjoys 

 marching in line and file to the strains of music falls 

 below my contempt: he received his great brain by 

 mistake — the spinal cord would have been sufficient. 

 This heroism is commanded; this senseless violence, 

 this accursed bombast of patriotism — how intensely I 

 despise them! War is low and despicable, and I had 

 rather be smitten to shreds than participate in such 

 doings. 



Such a stain on humanity should be erased without 

 delay. I think well enough of human nature to be- 

 lieve that it would have been wiped out long ago had 

 not the common sense of nations been systematically 

 corrupted through school and press for business and 

 political reasons. 



The most beautiful thing we can express is the mys- 

 terious. It is the source of all true art and science. 



