And, in the third place, the defeated nations, so treated, will, in fact, want their revenge.  There seems to be a curious illusion abroad, among the English and their allies, that not only is Germany guilty of the war, but that all Germans know it in their hearts; that, being guilty, they will fully accept punishment, bow patiently beneath the yoke, and become in future good, harmonious members of the European family.  The illusion is grotesque.  There is hardly a German who does not believe that the war was made by Russia and by England; that Germany is the innocent victim; that all right is on her side, and all wrong on that of the Allies.  If, indeed, she were beaten, and treated as her “punishers” desire, this belief would be strengthened, not weakened.  In every German heart would abide, deep and strong, the sense of an iniquitous triumph of what they believe to be wrong over right, and of a duty to redress that iniquity.  Outraged national pride would be reinforced by the sense of injustice; and the next war, the war of revenge, would be prepared for, not only by every consideration of interest and of passion, but by every cogency of righteousness.  The fact that the Germans are mistaken in their view of the origin of the war has really nothing to do with the case.  It is not the truth, it is what men believe to be the truth, that influences their action.  And I do not think any study of dispatches is going to alter the German view of the facts.

But it is sometimes urged that the war was made by the German militarists, that it is unpopular with the mass of the people, and that if Germany is utterly defeated the people will rise and depose their rulers, become a true democracy, and join fraternal hands with the other nations of Europe.  That Germany should become a true democracy might, indeed, be as great a guarantee of peace as it might be that other nations, called democratic, should really become so in their foreign policy as well as in their domestic affairs.  But what proud nation will accept democracy as a gift from insolent conquerors?  One thing that the war has done, and one of the worst, is to make of the Kaiser, to every German, a symbol of their national unity and national force.  Just because we abuse their militarism, they affirm and acclaim it; just because we attack their governing class, they rally round it.  Nothing could be better calculated than this war to strengthen the hold of militarism in Germany, unless it be the attempt of her enemies to destroy her militarism by force.  For consider—!  In the view we are examining it is proposed, first to kill the greater part of her combatants, next to invade her territory, destroy her towns and villages, and exact (for there are those who demand it) penalties in kind, actual tit for tat, for what Germans have done in Belgium.  It is proposed to enter the capital in triumph.  It is proposed to shear away huge pieces of German territory.  And then, when all this has been done, the conquerors are to turn to the German nation and say:  “Now, all this we have done for your good!  Depose your wicked rulers!  Become a democracy!  Shake hands and be a good fellow!” Does it not sound grotesque?  But, really, that is what is proposed.