The most obvious characteristic of a highly civilized man is his willingness to keep his word, at whatever cost to himself.  For reasons satisfactory to itself, Germany broke its pledge to respect the neutrality of Luxemburg and of Belgium.  It is another characteristic of civilization to cherish the works of art which have been bequeathed to us by the past.  For reasons satisfactory to itself Germany destroyed Louvain, more or less completely.  It is a final characteristic of civilized man to be humane and to refrain from ill-treating the blameless.  For reasons satisfactory to itself Germany dropped bombs in the unbesieged City of Antwerp and caused the death of innocent women and children.  Here are three instances where German culture has been tested and found wanting.

The Standard Bearer of Culture.

But it may be urged that war has its own exigencies and that these three instances of uncivilized conduct partook of the nature of military necessities.  Turning from the outrages of war to the triumphs of peace, let us make a disinterested attempt to find out just what foundation there may be for the implicit assertion that Germany is the standard bearer of civilization.

Perhaps it is too petty to point out that manners are the outward and visible sign of civilization, and that in this respect the Germans have not yet attained to the standard set by the French and the English.  But it is not insignificant to record that the Germans alone retain a barbaric mediaeval alphabet, while the rest of Western Europe has adopted the more legible and more graceful Roman letter; and it is not unimportant to note that German press style is cumbrous and uncouth.  Taken collectively, these things seem to show German culture is a little lacking in the social instinct, the desire to make things easy and pleasant for others.  It is this social instinct which is the dominating influence in French civilization and which has given to French civilization its incomparable urbanity and amenity.  It is to the absence of this social instinct, to the inability to understand the attitude of other parties to a discussion, to the unwillingness to appreciate their point of view, that we may ascribe the failure of German diplomacy, a failure which has left her almost without a friend in her hour of need.  And success in diplomacy is one of the supreme tests of civilization.

The claim asserted explicity or implicitly in behalf of German culture seems to be based on the belief that the Germans are leaders in the arts and in the sciences.  So far as the art of war is concerned there is no need today to dispute the German claim.  It is to the preparation for war that Prussia has devoted its utmost energy for half a century—­in fact, ever since Bismarck began to make ready for the seizing of unwilling Schleswig-Holstein.  And so far as the art of music is concerned there is also no need to cavil.

But what about the other and more purely intellectual arts?  How many are the contemporary painters and sculptors and architects of Germany who have succeeded in winning the cosmopolitan reputation which has been the reward of a score of the artists of France and of half a dozen of the artists of America?