THE HYPNOTIC POWER OF GERMANY. [TO Tit. EDITOR 01 TIDO

"srscrAres."3 "Army of Fiends fit body to fit head,

Was this your discipline and faith engaged, Your military obedience to dissolve Allegiance to the acknowledged Power Supreme ? And thou, sly hypocrite, who now wouldst seem Patron of Liberty, who more than thou Once fawned, and cringed, and servilely adored Heaven's awful Monarch P Wherefore but in hope To dispossess him, and thyself to reign."

—Paradise Lost.

am convinced that there is an aspect of the German mind to which we are giving very insufficient attention ; namely, to their power of self-hypnotism, and to their power of hypnotizing others. Miss Topham, who was for some years

governess to the little Princess, and bad therefore unusual opportunities of studying the Kaiser in private life when he was off his guard, talks of the influence that " Spiritism " in the person of Count E— got over his Imperial Majesty. The Connt's methods—and failings—were shown up one day by the enterprising and truth-telling Herr Harden, and he disappeared, to be seen no more at Court, but no doubt his teaching, and the effect of his teaching, remained.

What this " Spiritism " consisted in we do not quite know, but from other things that Miss Topham says, and from many things the Kaiser has said himself and about himself, I think

we may take it that it is a form of what the Americans call "New Thought," the essence of which, as I understand it, is this; The discovery of the Spark of God that is within oneself, and the power to unite that Spark with the Infinite and all- pervading Spirit which is God, to draw upon His infinite force, and thereby to become oneself invincible and infallible. This creed may, and I think does, account for many of the Kaiser's strange utterances and peculiarities, There are many

signs also that this "New Thought" idea (very much akin as it is to their own Nietzsche's "Will-to-Power ") has taken an immense bold upon the mind of the whole German people. The idea, no doubt, is a right and true one. Tennyson

says :—

" Spirit with Spirit can meet ; Nearer art Thou than breathing, And closer than hands and foot."

But what the German nation has apparently done is to deify itself, its Kaiser and its country, and to forget that God is the God of the other nations too, and is, moreover, "a God that is not mocked," and cannot be bluffed into regarding the Germans as His own chosen people, and quite the only people that matter, as they undoubtedly regard themselves, In fact, a great portion of the nation appears to deny the God outside themselves altogether. Their own special teacher, Nietzsche, said, "God is dead," which appears to a less cultured and philosophical people to be rank blasphemy, and in their philosophizings, in their teachings of science for many years past, and above all in their inhuman deeds since the war began, they have surely tried to kill Christ too, and have utterly repudiated His teachings, though many of them would no doubt still call themselves Christians.

In a " New Thought" manual now before me I read that the unseen forces are the real forces. By the persistent, patient, intelligent use of the thought implements, you may put in operation power that is invincible. Who can doubt that the Germans use every force, both material and spiritual, in a persistent, patient, and intelligent manner ? Anal believe that they have organized and arrayed their spiritual forces against us to a degree that this unimaginative and (must it be said) unspiritual nation does not, and cannot, realize. The picture in Punch some months ago of "A German family doing its Morning Hate" has probably far more literal truth in it than the artist was aware of. The German greeting, "Gott strafe England," is no doubt part of the same organization, and is not intended as a mere meaningless formula. We may take it for certain that that highly practical people waste no time on what is merely meaningless and of no avail.

In the article—" An Hypnotic Atmosphere," by a Neutral Correspondent—in the Daily Mail, he writes of "the strange influence that grew stronger as the weeks went by. I seemed to lose my individuality and to become merged in the German mass. It was with a sense of relief that I crossed the border into Switzerland, and found there a freer atmosphere." Ho puts it down to the influence of the Press. I believe it was, and is, hypnotism.

A few days ago I was talking to a German friend, a governess that I have known for many years. She was (naturally enough) pro-German when the war broke out, but her views since then have changed considerably. She told me that hypnotism had taken such a hold upon the German people that it had to be " verboten " (put down by the police).' She also told me that about three years ago she was in Germany, and was talking to her nephew, and in the course of con- versation he told her that a war with France was about due, and said quite naturally, "Of course, we should go through Belgium." She said, "But there is a treaty ; you couldn't." He shrugged his shoulders, and answered simply, " Wir miissen."

To understand and to know what one is "up against" is the first step towards resisting it. Let us organize our spiritual forces before it is too late. Let us think "New Thought" (plus Christianity), and pray that we may be able to "resist the devil and all his works " ; for, surely, minus Christianity and plus militarism, hypnotism is a force indeed, but a force of the devil and not of God.—I am, Sir, ex.,

C. R. S.