Of course, there is a certain amount of truth in this view; at the same time, it is lamentably insufficient.  The fact is that in the vast flux of destiny which is involved in such a war as the present, and which no argument can really adequately represent, we are fain to snatch at some neat phrase, however superficial, by way of explanation.  And we are compelled, moreover, to find a phrase which will put our own efforts in an ideal light—­otherwise we cannot go on fighting.  No nation can fight confessedly for a mean or base object.  Every nation inscribes on its banner Freedom, Justice, Religion, Culture versus Barbarism, or something of the kind, and in a sense redeems itself in so fighting.  It saves its soul even though bodily it may be conquered.  And this is not hypocrisy, but a psychological necessity, though each nation, of course, accuses the other of hypocrisy.

We are fighting “to put down militarism and the dominance of a military class,” says the great B.P., and one can only hope that when the war is over we shall remember and rivet into shape this great and good purpose—­not only with regard to foreign militarism, but also with regard to our own.  Certainly, whatever other or side views we may take of the war, we are bound to see in it an illustration of the danger of military class-rule.  You cannot keep a 60-h.p.  Daimler motor-car in your shed for years and years and still deny yourself the pleasure of going out on the public road with it—­even though you know you are not a very competent driver; and you cannot continue for half a century perfecting your military and naval organization without in the end making the temptation to become a political road-hog almost irresistible.

Still, accepting for the moment the popular explanation given above of Germany’s action as to some degree justified, we cannot help seeing how superficial and unsatisfactory it is, because it at once raises the question, which, indeed, is being asked in all directions, and not satisfactorily answered:  “How does it happen that so peace-loving, sociable, and friendly a people as the great German mass-folk, as we have hitherto known them, with their long scientific and literary tradition, their love of music and philosophy, their lager beer and tobacco, and their generally democratic habits, should have been led into a situation like the present, whether by a clique of Junkers or by a clique of militarist philosophers and politicians?” And the answer to this is both interesting and important.

It resolves itself into two main causes:  (1) the rise of the great German commercial class; and (2) the political ignorance of the German people.