And so with Germany. She grew and grew until the country could not
hold her children, until her banks could not contain her money,
until she stretched her arms out on every side and felt herself
stifled. Germany came late into the world and found it parcelled
out, but had she not a right to her place? She made herself great.
She needed space."
"Well," Philippa observed, "you couldn't suppose that other nations
were going to give up what they had, just because she wanted their
possessions, could you?"
"Perhaps not," he admitted. "And yet, you see, the immutable law
comes in here. The stronger must possess--not only the stronger
by arms, mind, but by intellect, by learning, by proficiency in
science, by utilitarianism. The really cruel part, the part I was
thinking of then, as I looked out across the sea, is that this
crude and miserable resort to arms should be necessary."
"If only Germans themselves were as broad-minded and reasonable as
you," Philippa sighed, "one feels that there might be some hope for
the future!"
"I am not alone," he assured her, "but, you see, all over Germany
there is spread like a spider's web the lay religion of the citizen
--devotion to the Government, blind obedience to the Kaiser.
Independent thought has made Germany great in science, in political
economy, in economics.
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