Even when the honest observer says, “These things I saw with my own eyes and will vouch for,” I am not convinced that he saw enough.  An intelligent foreigner with first-class introductions might go through England and see with his own eyes that England was longing for protection, the death of home rule, and the repeal of the Insurance act.  The unfortunate Prince Lichnowsky, after an exhaustive inquiry and access to the most secret sources of exclusive information telegraphed to the Kaiser less than a month ago that civil war was an immediate certainty throughout Ireland.  Astounding fatuity?  Not at all.  English observers of England have made, and constantly do make, mistakes equally prodigious.  See Hansard every month.  So that when I read demonstrations of the thesis that the heart of the German people is in the war, I am not greatly affected by them.

German Heart Is In the War.

Still, I do myself believe that the heart of the German people is in the war, and that that heart is governed by two motives—­the motive of self-defense against Russia and the motive of overbearing self-aggrandizement.  I do not base my opinion on phenomena which I have observed.  Beyond an automobile journey through Schleswig-Holstein, which was formidably tedious, and a yacht journey through the Kiel Canal and Kiel Bay, which was somewhat impressive, I have never traveled in Germany at all.  I base my opinion on general principles.  In a highly educated and civilized country such as Germany (the word “civilized” must soon take on a new significance!) it is impossible that an autocracy, even a military autocracy, could exist unrooted in the people.  “Prussian militarism” may annoy many Germans, but it pleases more than it annoys, and there can be few Germans who are not flattered by it.  That the lower classes have an even more tremendous grievance against the upper classes in Germany than in England or France is a certitude.  But the existence and power of the army are their reward, their sole reward, for all that they have suffered in hardship and humiliation at the hands of the autocracy.  It is the autocracy’s bribe and sweetmeat to them.

The Germans are a great nation; they have admirable qualities, but they have also defects, and among their defects is a clumsy arrogance, which may be noticed in any international hotel frequented by Germans.  It is a racial defect, and to try to limit it to the military autocracy is absurd.  An educated and civilized nation has roughly the Government that it wants and deserves.  And it has in the end ways of imposing itself on its apparent rulers that are more effective than the ballot box or the barricade, and just as sure.  No election was needed to prove to the Italian Government that Italy did not want to fight for the Triple Alliance, and would not fight for it.  The fact was known; it was immanent in the air, beyond all arguments and persuasions.  Italy breathed a negative, and war was not.  So in Germany the mass of Germans have for years breathed war, and war is.  The war may be autocratic, dynastic, what you will; but it is also national, and it symbolizes the national defect.