GERM AH PHILOSOPHY IN BRINGING ABOUT THE GREAT WAR. L19 



Christ inn-romantic, now the Wagnerian, now the Teutonic, now 

 the Prussian ; out// look at these poor historians, the Sybels, 

 TreitschJces, and their thickly tied-up heads; these are all slight 

 ore) -clou dings of the German mind and conscience. The very cause 

 which is associated with the teaching of Treitschke is, then, in 

 the opinion of this philosopher, an overclouding of the German 

 mind and conscience, and Treitschke himself a poor creature, a 

 Prusso-maniac. It seems hard, then, to associate Nietzsche with 

 the very ideas which, in his opinion, were stupid and criminal, 

 and contrary to what in his view had been the common aim of 

 the great men of Germany and France. 



To find any passage in Nietzsche's works wherein the domina- 

 tion by Germany of Europe and the world is either foretold or 

 desired might be difficult. One sentence which is of some 

 interest may be quoted. The deep, icy mistrust which is aroused 

 by the German so soon as he comes to power, even in these days, is 

 an echo of that inextinguishable horror wherewith JZurope for 

 centuries looked on at the raging of the German monster — though 

 between the ancient Germans and the Germans of to-day there is 

 scarcely any relationship of ideas, not to speak of a relationship of 

 I, I nod. Had Nietzsche lived to see the present war and retained 

 his mental power sufficiently to watch its progress, he would 

 have thought better of his countrymen. His main political 

 theory appears to be that what he calls the " slave morality " — 

 i.e., the introduction of a system of order and justice to which 

 all have to submit, and which reduces the wild noble to the 

 condition of the tame plebeian or slave — is the work of the Jews ; 

 they represent that false slave morality which has hitherto 

 triumphed. Now he regards the Germans of his time as 

 possessed of kindred gifts with the Jews ; the Jews were the 

 priestly nation of resentment par excellence in whom dwelt an 

 incomparable genius for popular morality ; you have only to 

 compare with them the nations ivith kindred gifts — e.g., the 

 Chinese or the Germans, to perceive what is of the first and what 

 of the fifth rank. The work in which these ideas are stated 

 most forcibly ends with a confession that he desires to see 

 something, but he leaves it to his reader to guess what. 



In another of his works Nietzsche expresses the hope that 

 the Germans might yet have the honour to be the first 

 un-Christian nation in Europe, pointing out how Schopenhauer 

 had already remarked that they possessed in a high degree the 

 necessary qualifications, and honoured them on that account. 

 And one most noteworthy difference between Nietzsche and 

 Treitschke is their attitude on the subject of religion. Treitschke 



