The Wrack of the Storm | Page 3

of their
innocence; and it is the monster they maintain at their head who stands
for all that is true in their nature, because it is he who represents the
eternal aspirations of their race, which lie far deeper than their apparent
and transient virtues. Let there be no suggestion of error, of having
been led astray, of an intelligent people having been tricked or misled.
No nation can be deceived that does not wish to be deceived; and it is
not intelligence that Germany lacks. In the sphere of intellect such
things are not possible; nor in the region of enlightened, reflecting will.
No nation permits herself to be coerced to the one crime that man
cannot pardon. It is of her own accord that she hastens towards it; her
chief has no need to persuade, it is she who urges him on.
4

We have forces here quite different from those on the surface, forces
that are secret, irresistible and profound. It is these that we must judge,
these that we must crush under our heel, once and for all; for they are
the only ones that will not be improved or softened or brought into line
by experience or progress, or even by the bitterest lesson. They are
unalterable and immovable, their springs lie far beneath hope or
influence; and they must be destroyed as we destroy a nest of wasps,
since we know that these never can change into a nest of bees. And,
even though individually and singly the Germans were all innocent and
merely led astray, they would be none the less guilty in the mass. This
is the guilt that counts, that alone is actual and real, because it lays bare,
underneath their superficial innocence, the subconscious criminality of
all.
5
No influence can prevail on the unconscious or the subconscious. It
never evolves. Let there come a thousand years of civilization, a
thousand years of peace, with all possible refinements of art and
education, the subconscious element of the German spirit, which is its
unvarying element, will remain absolutely the same as it is to-day and
would declare itself, when the opportunity came, under the same aspect,
with the same infamy. Through the whole course of history, two
distinct willpowers have been noticed that would seem to be the
opposed, elemental manifestations of the spirit of our globe, the one
seeking only evil, injustice, tyranny and suffering, while the other
strives for liberty, the right, radiance and joy. These two powers stand
once again face to face; our opportunity is now to annihilate the one
that comes from below. Let us know how to be pitiless that we may
have no more need for pity. It is a measure of organic defence. It is
essential that the modern world should stamp out Prussian militarism as
it would stamp out a poisonous fungus that for half a century had
disturbed and polluted its days. The health of our planet is in question.
To-morrow the United States of Europe will have to take measures for
the convalescence of the earth.
FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Translated by Alfred Sutro.]
* * * * *

KING ALBERT

II
KING ALBERT
1
Of all the heroes of this stupendous war, heroes who will live in the
memory of man, one assuredly of the most unsullied, one of those
whom we can never love enough, is the great young king of my little
country.
He was indeed at the critical hour the appointed man, the man for
whom every heart was waiting. With sudden beauty he embodied the
mighty voice of his people. He stood, upon the moment, for Belgium,
revealed unto herself and unto others. He had the wonderful good
fortune to realize and bestow a conscience in one of those dread hours
of tragedy and perplexity when the best of consciences waver.
Had he not been at hand, there is no doubt but that all would have
happened differently; and history would have lost one of her fairest and
noblest pages. Certainly Belgium would have been loyal and true to her
word; and any government would have been swept away, pitilessly and
irresistibly, by the indignation of a people that had never, however far
we probe into the past, played false. But there would have been much
of that confusion and irresolution inevitable in a host suddenly
threatened with disaster. There would have been vain talking, mistaken
measures, excusable but irreparable vacillations; and, above all, the
much-needed words, the precise and final words, would not have been
spoken and the deeds, than which we can picture none more resolute,

none greater, would not have been done at the right moment.
Thanks to the king, the peerless act shines forth and is maintained
complete, unfaltering; and the path of