CHAPTER VI

HAMLET AND THE DANES

Degeneration of Grimm’s Fairy Tales—­From
Tales of Terror to Tales of Terrorism—­German
Mistake of being Deep—­The
Germanisation of Shakespeare—­Carlyle and
the Spoilt Child—­The Test of Teutonism—­
Hell or Hans Andersen—­Causes of English
Inaction—­Barbarism and Splendid Isolation—­
The Peace of the Plutocrats—­Hamlet
the Englishman—­The Triumph of Bismarck.

CHAPTER VII

THE MIDNIGHT OF EUROPE

The Two Napoleons—­Their Ultimate
Success—­The Interlude of Sedan—­The
Meaning of an Emperor—­The Triumph of
Versailles—­The True Innocence of England—­
Triumph of the Kaiser.

CHAPTER VIII

THE WRONG HORSE

Lord Salisbury Again—­The Influence of
1870—­The Fairy Tale of Teutonism—­The
Adoration of the Crescent—­The Reign of
the Cynics—­Last Words to Professor
Whirlwind.

CHAPTER IX

THE AWAKENING OF ENGLAND

The March of Montenegro—­The Anti-Servile
State—­The Prussian Preparation—­The
Sleep of England—­The Awakening of
England.

CHAPTER X

THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE

The Hour of Peril—­The Human Deluge—­The
English at the Marne.

THE CRIMES OF ENGLAND

I—­Some Words to Professor Whirlwind

DEAR PROFESSOR WHIRLWIND,

Your name in the original German is too much for me; and this is the nearest I propose to get to it:  but under the majestic image of pure wind marching in a movement wholly circular I seem to see, as in a vision, something of your mind.  But the grand isolation of your thoughts leads you to express them in such words as are gratifying to yourself, and have an inconspicuous or even an unfortunate effect upon others.  If anything were really to be made of your moral campaign against the English nation, it was clearly necessary that somebody, if it were only an Englishman, should show you how to leave off professing philosophy and begin to practise it.  I have therefore sold myself into the Prussian service, and in return for a cast-off suit of the Emperor’s clothes (the uniform of an English midshipman), a German hausfrau’s recipe for poison gas, two penny cigars, and twenty-five Iron Crosses, I have consented to instruct you in the rudiments of international controversy.  Of this part of my task I have here little to say that is not covered by a general adjuration to you to observe certain elementary rules.  They are, roughly speaking, as follows:—­