November 6, 1915. 
LAND AND WATER . 
officialdom. As a literary fashion it is merely 
])reposteroiis — an essay in provincialism which is 
]-)ardonable because of its absurdity. As a social 
laihng it is at least as comic as it is offensive. 
But exalt this mannerism into a creed, base on it 
a thousand material interests, and give it great 
; r nies to make it real, and you are confronted 
with a dangerous mania. Self-worshippers are 
harmless till they seek to compel the rest of man- 
kind to make the same obeisance. 
A good instance of the spirit is to be found in 
a little book published in February by Professor 
Werner Sombart, of Berlin, under tlie title of 
Handler uiid Hclder. The writer earned some 
reputation as an exponent of academic socialism, 
then he published an account of the part played 
by the Jews in modern ci\'ilisati6n, and now he 
appears as the high -priest of Germanenthum. 
He is not a profound thinker or a pleasing writer, 
but his work is typical of the spirit now dominant 
in his country. It is the sciolist who has his 
ear most ready to catch a hint of popular desires, 
and his work has always documentary value. 
Two quotations will make clear his meaning. 
" Our kingdom," he speaks for Germany, "is of 
this world. If we desire to remain a strong State 
we must conquer. A great victory will make it 
possible not to trouble any more about those who 
are around us. When the German stands leaning 
on his mighty sword, clad in steel from his sole 
to his head, whatsoever will may down below 
dance around his feet, and the intellectuals and 
the learned men of England, France, Russia and 
Italy may rail at him and throw mud. But in 
his lolty repose he will not allow himself to be dis- 
turbed, and he will only reflect in the sense of his 
old ancestors in Europe : Oderint dtim metuant." 
"THE CHOSEN PEOPLE." 
The conception of the chosen people is de- 
veloped in his peroration : " No. We must purge 
from our soul the last fragments of the old ideal 
of a progressive de\'elopment of humanity. . . . 
The ideal of humanity can only be understood in 
its highest sense when it attains its highest and 
richest development in particular noble nations. 
These for the time being are the representatives of 
God's thought on earth. Such were the Jews. 
Such were the Greeks. And the chosen people of 
these centuries is the German people. . . . Now 
we understand why other peoples pursue us with 
their hatred. They do not understand us, but 
they are sensible of our enormous spiritual 
superiority. So the Jews were hated in antiqi:>ty 
because they were the representatives of God on 
earth." 
Such is the simple philo.sophy of history 
which, in varying degree, has captured the majority 
of the German race. It is right and fitting that a 
people should have a great tradition, and believe 
itself dowered with a great destiny. Wordsworth, 
in a famous sonnet, has written : — 
"In cvpry thing wo aro sprung 
Of I-'arth's first blot).!, have titles manifnld." 
But to what purpose is this consciousness to be 
used ? Wordsworth has told us : — 
" We must be free or die, who spsak the tongue 
That Shakespeare spake ; the faith and morals hold 
Which Milton held." 
Such noble confidence is directed to one end — 
national liberty. But when it degenerates into 
megalomania and seeks to set itself above the 
human family ; when, crazy with a belief in a 
di\"ine mission, it regards itself as absolved from 
all obligations of law and morality ; when it 
demands that the fires before its altars shall be 
fed with the rights and ideals of every other 
people ; when it claims for itself the only freedom 
and would make all other nations dependent upon 
its good pleasure ; then it becomes a childish 
mania to be suppressed, a malignant growth for 
which sharp surgery is the only cure. If Ger- 
many's claim were admitted few honest men would 
desire to continue their life on this planet. 
It is the existence of this disease which 
makes no terms of peace conceivable. The Im- 
psrial Chancellor, seeing whither this country is 
tending, may seek to diffuse an atmosphere of 
reasonableness, and pave the way for a settlement. 
But madness is a prepotent thing, and the fanatics 
will continue to call the tune till the day of 
cataclysm. The spirits which have been sum- 
moned from the unclean deeps cannot be laid 
by a few puzzled politicians. John Buchan. 
Mr. Ellis .\shmead Bartlett is to repeat his lecture on 
" Operations in the Dardanelles," on Wednesday afternoon 
at Oucen's Hall. Mr. Ashmead Bartlett lectures as well a-; 
he writes, which is saying a great deal. He is most out- 
spoken in his criticisms, and his descriptions of the scenes 
in which he has taken a part are very vivid. This will be 
the last of his lectures in London for the time being, as 
next week he goes on a tour in the North of England. 
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