England and the War | Page 8

American, laughed aloud at this, and protested, without producing
the smallest effect. The stream of talk went on. The error of the
Germans, we were told, was always that they are too humane; their
dislike of cruelty amounts to a weakness in them. They let France
escape with a paltry fine, next time France must be beaten to the dust.
Always with a pleasant outward courtesy, he passed on to England.
England was decadent and powerless, her rule must pass to the
Germans. 'But we shall treat England rather less severely than France,'

said this bland apostle of Prussian culture, 'for we wish to make it
possible for ourselves to remain in friendly relations with other
English-speaking peoples.' And so on--the whole of the Bernhardi
doctrine, explained in quiet fashion by a man whose very debility of
mind made his talk the more impressive, for he was simply parroting
what he had often heard. No one criticized his proposals, nor did we
dislike him. It all seemed too mad; a rather clumsy jest. His world of
ideas did not touch our world at any point, so that real talk between us
was impossible. He came to see us several times, and always gave the
same kind of mesmerized recital of Germany's policy. The grossness of
the whole thing was in curious contrast with the polite and quiet voice
with which he uttered his insolences. When I remember his talk I find it
easy to believe that the German Emperor and the German Chancellor
have also talked in such a manner that they have never had the smallest
opportunity of learning what Englishmen think and mean.
While the German doctrine was the plaything merely of hysterical and
supersensitive persons, like Carlyle and Nietzsche, it mattered little to
the world of politics. An excitable man, of vivid imagination and
invalid constitution, like Carlyle, feels a natural predilection for the cult
of the healthy brute. Carlyle's English style is itself a kind of epilepsy.
Nietzsche was so nervously sensitive that everyday life was an anguish
to him, and broke his strength. Both were poets, as Marlowe was a poet,
and both sang the song of Power. The brutes of the swamp and the field,
who gathered round them and listened, found nothing new or
unfamiliar in the message of the poets. 'This', they said, 'is what we
have always known, but we did not know that it is poetry. Now that
great poets teach it, we need no longer be ashamed of it.' So they went
away resolved to be twice the brutes that they were before, and they
named themselves Culture-brutes.
It is difficult to see how the world, or any considerable part of it, can
belong to Germany, till she changes her mind. If she can do that, she
might make a good ruler, for she has solid virtues and good instincts. It
is her intellect that has gone wrong. Bishop Butler was one day found
pondering the problem whether, a whole nation can go mad. If he had
lived to-day what would he have said about it? Would he have admitted

that that strangest of grim fancies is realized?
It would be vain for Germany to take the world; she could not keep it;
nor, though she can make a vast number of people miserable for a long
time, could she ever hope to make all the inhabitants of the world
miserable for all time. She has a giant's power, and does not think it
infamous to use it like a giant. She can make a winter hideous, but she
cannot prohibit the return of spring, or annul the cleansing power of
water. Sanity is not only better than insanity; it is much stronger, and
Might is Right.
Meantime, it is a delight and a consolation to Englishmen that England
is herself again. She has a cause that it is good to fight for, whether it
succeed or fail. The hope that uplifts her is the hope of a better world,
which our children shall see. She has wonderful friends. From what
self-governing nations in the world can Germany hear such messages
as came to England from the Dominions oversea? 'When England is at
war, Canada is at war.' 'To the last man and the last shilling, Australia
will support the cause of the Empire.' These are simple words, and
sufficient; having said them, Canada and Australia said no more. In the
company of such friends, and for the creed that she holds, England
might be proud to die; but surely her time is not yet.
Our faith is ours, and comes not on a tide; And whether Earth's great
offspring by decree Must rot if they abjure rapacity, Not argument, but
effort shall decide. They number many heads in that hard