LAND AND WATER 
March i6, 1916. 
in^tin**, nurtured b\' rcntmifs f»f assiduous practice and 
use, that it has bi-en able to diffuse itself like an essence 
without losing its own identity. 
It is to tliat process of diffusion tliat I would ask a 
momentary attention. Every practical rule of life or 
go\-erning system, if it is to prosper in the world, must 
achieve some sort of an intellectual and spiritual expres- 
sion of itself. Until it does this it has no real existence 
apart from the circumstances which called it forth, and 
cannot hope to commend itself to dwellers outside those 
circiunstances. (^ne of the most remarkable things that 
has occurred in luuope during the last three-quarters of 
a centurv has been tiie investiture of the ])riinitive Prus- 
sian rule of life with its appropriate body of arguments, 
reasons, and even aspirations. What was a mere blind 
instinct, born of necessity and the grim facts of life, has 
found its intellectual and spiritual self and has become 
in consequence a proselytising influence. 
Teuton State Philosophy. 
To attempt here a description of the State-philosophy 
of Prussia as finally formulated would take us far beyond 
our limits ; but if we approach the subject from the point 
of view of the practice and usage of the Prussian nation, 
if we try and imagine the philosophy as tittiitg the life, 
and the chief charateristics in the life as de\eloping into 
the main tenets in the ])hilosophy, we may be able to 
disengage the essential traits of Prussianisni. 
" To be weak is miserable " ; the lesson of Prussian 
life is summed up in that short phrase of Milton's. The 
(piality on which the very existence of the invaders 
depended was their capacity to dominate, to keep and 
hold down by the strong hand the insurgent and re- 
fractory elements of society. If we were to figure the 
Norman knights of England, not absorbed into the 
l^opnlation and reconciled to English ideals, but fiercely 
trampling down the conquered Saxons into perpetual 
serfdom ; if we can imagine a league of grey keeps and 
castles, not falling to decay, but continuing to exercis: 
from century to century their subjugating influence, 
we should have a true idea of the processes by which the 
autocratic spirit in Prussia has perpetuated itself. 
The reader cannot fail to have observed the extra- 
ordinary sameness .which prevails among all the Prussian 
portraits belonging to the dim picture gallery of past 
history. All surviving records, ballads and legends 
deal in one type. Down to the present it never varies. 
The heroes of the war of liberation, Gneisenau, Arndt, 
Eichte, Scharnhorst, the leaders of sixty-six and seventy, 
Roon, Bismarck, Moltke, Manteuffel, down to the 
Hindenburgs and Mackensens of the present, all seem to 
incarnate, rough hewn and strong as they are, 
the same ideal of physical dominance, physical might, 
the might of the bludgeon. There is no more eloquent 
testimony than this prevalent type to the influence of 
that long grim feudal history biting slowly into Prussian 
character. Let the reader weigh well the lessons of that 
historv— that weakness is the final misery, that might 
and power and valour and the virile virtues that over- 
come and dominate are the primary conditions of life — 
and having weighed these let him turn to the State 
doctrine, as carefully and repeatedly defined during the 
last fifty vears by a succession of Prussian historians ; 
and ask himself whether its leading- axiom —that " The 
State is Power " —is any other than a translation into 
words of what has been the imconscious rule of Prussian 
life for centuries ? 
The Sense of Power. 
For generations in every typical Prussian household 
the seed has been germinating which has borne this 
fruit. The State is the collective consciousness, or bond 
of imity of the whole, and this bond of unity, savs the 
Prussian doctrine, cnsisls in the sense of power. I'owcr 
is the highest good. Power is that which transcends all 
moral law. As I read the familiar phrases my thought 
trends back over the bleak tracts of Prussian history and 
I confess that the modern doctrine is but the slowly 
inculcated lesson of ancient experience. 
But we may go one step further. Professor Cramb, 
whom 1 like to quote because of his appreciation of what 
is positive in Prussian ideas, has some fine pages on the 
Spartan disciuline and self sacrifice which the gospel of 
miglit imposes. But he rises to a still loftier eloquence 
when he goes on to describe the spiritual faith which 
is to be the counterpart of that theory. Ever since 
Germany's fatal mistake in adopting, fourteen centuries 
ago, the religion of a conquered race, she has " struggled 
and wrestled to see with eyes that were not her eyes, to 
worship a god that was not her god, to live with a world- 
vision that was not her vision, and to strive for a heaven 
that was not her heaven." And now at last has come the 
great revolt, the revolt of " the most earnest and pas- 
sionate minds of young (iermany " against th(' thraldom 
of ("hristianity. .^Xnd instead of Chvistianity what will 
they set up ? " The prevalent bent of mind, " ccjmes the 
answer, " at the uni\ersities, in the army amongst the 
more cultured is towards what may be described as the 
religion of Valour." 
\\'ith that final definition the Prussian ideal reaches 
its symmetrical expression. I desire here only to call 
attention to its logical completeness and harmony. 
Every practical theory must discover, as I said, its 
intellectual and spiritual self. The tyrannic instinct, 
raw and primitive in Prussian history, finds its intellectual 
self in the conception of the State as power, and its 
spiritual self in a religion of valour. Thereupon it is 
complete. It starjds forth in organic unity, each mani- 
festation of its nature in agreement, a complete philosophy 
of life. 
Our Philosophy of Life. 
And what about our philosophy of life ? What have 
we to set against the Prussian ideal ? It had been my 
intention to develop this theme also ; to place our answer 
to life's problem alongside the Prussian answer that the 
extent of the contrast might be realised. But I have 
already exceeded my space, nor perhaps is this further 
analysis strictly necessary. We can work it out for . 
ourselves. What does our past show ? Not the dominion 
of an all powerful class, but the co-operation of all classes 
in the act of government. .'Vnd springing out of this 
difference of root comes the equivalent difference of tha 
idea of the State, not as the embodiment of power but 
the embodiment of liberty. Further, just as the Prussian 
religion of valour ir, as it were, the moral guarantee of 
physical might and tyranny ; so with us the religion 
which establishes the independence and ultimate supre- 
macy of tlie individual spirit is the first guarantee of the 
principle of Liberty. 
Whoever looks at the matter thus in the light of 
history, will realise the depths of the antagonism on 
which the present war is based. The roots of that 
antagonism are buried in the past, and embrace the life, 
})olitical, intellectual, spiritual, of nations. Five hundred 
years ago the seeds of this war were being sown, and yet 
there exists a type of politician among us who glibly and 
confidently talk about " making peace," as though that 
were a simple matter easily within our power. If they 
would consider the difference of which the war is but the 
external expression they would perhaps alter that opinion. 
How can we make peace ? We might conceivably by 
hook or crook stop the actual fighting. But would that 
mean making peace ; would that mean really stopping 
the war ? Not a bit of it. 
The war, whatever we may do, and whether we wish 
it or not, will go on. It will go on, openly or under 
disguises, until the tremendous question whether the 
future of Europe is to be developed on a basis of tyranny 
or on a basis of liberty, is finally answered. 
The Italian Ambassador will open on Saturday an 
exhibition at the Suffolk Street Galleries of the Koyal Society 
nf British .Artists of the work of the Italian Society of 
Etchers and Lngravcrs in aid of the Italian Red Cross. 
Lady Perley, wife of the High Commissioner for Canada 
gave a reception for the Victoria League at Prince's Kestau 
rant last Friday. It was largely attended, especially by 
Canadian officers, and everything was very well done. 
Messrs. Eyre and Spottiswoode have just published the 
Soldiers' Enolish-Vrencli Friend, a useful little manual o' 
French words, phrases, and sentences, with the corresponding 
linglish, which will enable anv man to make himself under- 
stood among Lrench and Belgian troops. The book is soiil at 
2d., and all urofits an sales go to the Red Cross Funds. 
