Hit BIOLOGY OF WAR.*
DR. NICOLA]; the Professor of Physiology in Berlin University, was deprived of his Chair and of his private property for criticizing the German war policy in 1914. He was afterwards interned at Graudenz, where in 1915 he wrote an elaborate treatise against war as a method of settling international disputes. The manu- script was smuggled out of the country and published at Zurich. The book was prohibited in Germany, and the author was sent to an ordinary prison. Last year he succeeded in escaping in an aeroplane to Denmark, whence he has been permitted to return home. A book which has exposed its author to such persecution naturally attracts curiosity, and Mr. and Mrs. Grande have done well to translate it. We could wish that all translators of German works showed such a competent knowledge both of the language and of the subject as they do; their version is singularly clear and readable, and the many allusions that would puzzle English people are properly explained in footnotes. Mr. and Mrs. Grande, we think, go much too far in describing The Biology of War as "the most remarkable book which this war has yet produced," but it is a very creditable piece of work for a German Professor in the year 1915, inasmuch as it shows a complete detachment from the abominable Pan-German and militarist doctrines which the educated classes in Germany had been advocating for a generation before the war. Dr. Nicolai is in no sense a Pacificist of the sentimental British type. He does not rely on humane or religious arguments ; he admits that he has no religious belief, unless it be a vague leaning towards Positivism. He would not condemn a really defensive war, such as Belgium and, for that matter, all the Allies have waged. He seems to be influenced, almost despite himself, by the con- ception of the "Yellow Peril," and regards a race-war between Europe and the Mongolians as conceivable, though he hopes that " never shall we show the Asiatics such a sign of weakness as to draw the sword- against them." His main contention is that the European race has so much to do in developing the natural resources of the world that it is foolish to dissipate its energies in internecine wars. War is out of date, he urges ; it is costly, it does not provide a real solution of a dispute, it is bad for the race since the most vigorous men are killed or crippled. "For the really strong, war is superfluous ; and as obviously it is generally folly for the weak, it is self-evident that, save in the rarest instances, there can be no object whatever in it." This is a neatly rounded thought, characteristic of Dr. Nicolai, which will not bear analysis. It is probably aimed at the ex-Kaiser, but it would, taken literally, convict Leonidas and many another hero of criminal folly. The fact is that the book is addressed to a German public obsessed by pseudo-scientific arguments for war and race domination. The disgraceful manifesto of the ninety-three eminent German professors, authors, and artists in October, 1914, induced Dr. Nicolai to write the book, and he devotes special attention to the growth of German militarism under an officer caste, and to the monstrous race-theories under the influence of which many Germans honestly believe that they are the "Chosen People" of pure " Teutonic " stock, although they are, of course, a mixed race. Dr. Nicolai makes a wide survey
of literature to show that educated man has always disliked war, and he laments that "the first voice ever heard from time immemorialpraising war for war's sake should have been that of a German "—Moltke, who in a letter to Bluntschli said that "without war the world would become swamped in materialism."
Dr. Nicolai looks for a general recognition of "the world as an organism," but "Europe can only be freely welded together" —that is, by voluntary co-operation and not by force. It may be hoped that he will convert his countrymen to his own standpoint, for all the world outside Germany is only too anxious to live at peace.
*The Biology of War. By Dr. OP. Nicola,. Translated by Conirtanae A. Grande and Julian armada. London : Dent. 1,21m. ntt4
Previous page
