THE GERMAN MIND.•

MR. WILLIAM ARCHER, to whose industry and knowledge we owe this singularly interesting collection, makes no pretence to having exhausted his subject. But, as he says, " enough is as good as a feast, and I think that the evidence as to the dominant character- istics of German mentality is tolerably complete as it stands." The list of books from which he has selected his " gems " by no means indicates the extent of his readiag, but though he has gone through many books and pamphlets which furnished no quotable extracts, noise has " diverged in tone from the rest, or marred the majestic unison of German self-laudation and contempt for the rest of the world." It is unnecessary to insist upon Mr. Archer's qualifications for the task. As a literary and dramatic critic he has always been distinguished for independence, honesty, and a remarkable freedom from all insular bias. He has never been the spokesman of majority views or aimed at conciliating public opinion. And his knowledge of Continental literature is based upon first-hand acquaintance with the originals. The method he has adopted in this book is what might be expected from so well equipped and con- scientious a writer. The great majority of his quotations are taken from the original sources, the references being exactly given. He was scrupulous on this point, "not only that the reader might be able to test the accuracy and fairness of my work, but because I hoped that some one, some day, might be moved to republish the anthology in the original German." He adds that in no ease is there any unfairness in taking these brief extracts out of their context. " The context is almost always an aggravating rather than an extenuating circumstance." The list of books and pamphlets from which extracts are made runs to upwards of eighty, and the full titles and dates of publication arc given in every instance. To enhance the value of the collection, Mr. Archer has provided an index of the authors cited, with brief notes enabling the reader to estimate the position of the different writers in the public life of Germany. This was a highly desirable precaution, since " many of the most incredible utterances in the following pages proceed from men of world-wide reputation. Indeed, few contemporary German names of much distinction are absent from my list:" This is only a simple statement of fact when it is borne in mind that Harnack and Eucken, the two leading German theologians; Haeckel, the veteran zoologist ; Wilamowitz-Meillendorf, Germany's moat brilliant classical scholar ; economists of the eminence of Oncken and Sombart ; and Naumann, one of her greatest historians, " all join with a will in the chorus of arrogance, ambition, and hate." Mr. Archer is careful to distinguish the ante-bellum utterances from • al Gems "I Cerinan Thought. Selected by w1111ain Archer. London : T. rtsbcr taula. Its. nets

those which are subsequent to July, 1914, and there is of course a marked crescendo in ferocity as well as in self-glorification. But so far as the latter quality is concerned, there is little substantial• alteration. The habit of mind disclosed by the late William Arnold

in his German Ambitions as they Affect Britain and the United States cf .4mcrica—a series of articles which originally appeared in the Spectator and was published in book form in 1903—is now traced in its later stages, always growing and gathering strength until the declaration of war opens the floodgates and the torrent " rushes forth, grandiose, overwhelming, and unique." For Mr. Archer is " pretty confident " that the to quoque argument will not apply here. Indeed, ho doubts " whether tho literature of the world can show a parallel to the amazing outburst of tribal arrogance unrestrained and unashamed, of which these pages contain but a few scattered specimens." There is something sinister and formid- able about the unanimity with which all these interpreters of German, life and thought proclaim their belief in Germany's mission, in her identity with the future of humanity and civilization, and the confi- dence with which they regard the future. National confidence is no doubt a great asset ; it gives strength on the possunt quia posse videntur principle. But when one takes into account the appalling mendacity and the wilful blindness on which it is based. and the extent to which German foresight has already been falsified by results, national megalomania, not national great-he,artedness, stands revealed in all its monstrosity. The deep-rooted belief of the wisest people of antiquity that insolence born of satiety provoked the doom of Nemesis has seldom been belied. " Why must teachers and schoolboys, year out, year in, worry about the old Creeks and Romans Y asked a German General in 1913. " To foster idealism in the young, we are told 1 But for that there is no need to go to Rome and Athens. Our German history offers us, ideals enough, and is richer in deeds of heroism than Rome and Athens put together." Modern Germany is certainly richer in hubris than any nation, modern or ancient, and it is just as well for her complacency that she should shut her eyes to the teachings of the old Greeks as to its inevitable consequences. Self-worship and the craving for aggrandizement, Mr. Archer observes, arc in. reality very uninspiring emotions, and the German war-scriptures are pervaded by an extraordinary aridity of spirit and a singular lack of grace, charm, or atmosphere. When you have read three or four of these pamphlets you have read all : the topics are few and ever-recurrent ; the quotations aro obligatory ; yet in spite of this deadly uniformity of sentiment, phraseology, and quotation, we are assured by one of their leading writers that the German is personally independent. Mr. Archer rightly insists on the German habit, liberally illustrated in these pages, of denouncing as insanely presumptuous or wicked in the English what the Germans regard as a virtue in themselves, and he

apologizes for the wearisome recurrence of the names of Nietzsche, Treitschke, and Bernhardt, but their omission was impossible. " They arc the major prophets of the new-German spirit. Treitschke is the prophet of tribalism, Nietzsche of ruthlessness, Bernhardi of ambition " ; and he has no doubt that Nietzsche has been " by far the greatest single force among the spiritual shapers of new Germany."

It is hard to choose where all is so typical, but we may conclude our notice with a few " gems " of special brilliance :-

GERMAN HUMILITY.

" 21. Germany is the future of humanity.—On the German God, by PASTOR W. LEHMANN.

21a. God defend the noble cause of Deutachtum. There is no other hope for the future of humanity.—H. S. CHAMBERLAIN, tut Hamburger Nachrichten, September, 1914.

21b. We must vanquish, because the downfall of Germanism would mean the downfall of humanity.—Six War Sermons, by PASTOR K. KONIG." '

THE GENTLE GERMAN.

" 52a. We thank our German Army that it has kept spotless the shield of humanity and chivalry. It is true we believe that every bone of a German soldier, with his heroic heart and immortal soul, is worth more than a cathedral.—Paor. W. KAHL.

521). We see everywhere how our soldiers respect the sacred defencelessness of woman and child.—Paor. G. Rorruz."

THE GREAT MISUNDERSTOOD.

" el. It is said that it is un-German to wish to be only German. That again is a consequence of our spiritual wealth. We under- stand all foreign nations ; none of them understands us, and none of them can understand us.—Paoa. W. S031BART."

KULTUR.

" 75. If wo are beaten—which God and our strong arm forbid— all the higher Kultur of our hemisphere, which it was our mission to guard, sinks with us into the grave.—Prtoa. A. v. HARNAOH."

THE CHOSEN PEOPLE.

" 135. Germany is the centre of God's plans for the world. —On the German God, by PASTOR W. LEHMANN."

GERMANY THE CHRIST OF NATIONS.

" 148. We could draw many instructive parallels : we could say that as Jesus was treated so also have the German people been treated.—War Sermons, by Pasron H. FRANCHE."

" 182. The thief who expiated a sinful past by his repentance in the last hour, and was outwardly subieeted-tnthe same suffering as our Lord, is the typo of the Turkish nation. which now puts Christianity (outside Germany) to shame.—Da. PREUSS."

WAR WORSHIP.

" 274. What men tower highest in the history of the nation, whom does the German heart cherish with the most ardent love ? Goethe ? Schiller ? Wanner ? Marx ? Oh, no—but Barharossa, the great Frederick, Blucher, Moltke, Bismarck, the hard men of blood. It is to them, who offered up thousands of lives, that the soul of the people goes out with tenderest affection, with positively adoring gratitude. Because they did what now we ought to do. . . . our holiest raptures of homage are paid to these Titans of the Blood-Deed.—Dn. W. Eustis, in article on ' Psychiatric and Politics,' in Die Post, 28th January, 1912."

RUTHLESSNESS,

" 360. We are not only compelled to accept the war that is forced upon us . . . but are even compelled to carry on this war with a cruelty, a ruthlessness, an employment of every imaginable device, unknown in any previous war.—PasTon D. BAUMGARTEN.

361. Whoever cannot prevail upon himself to approve from the bottom of his heart the sinking of the Lusitania '—whoever cannot conquer his sense of the gigantic cruelty (ungeheure Grausantkeit) to unnumbered perfectly innocent victims . . . and give himself up to honest delight at this victorious exploit of German defensive power —him we judge to be no true German.—PASTOR D. BAUMGARTEN."

The last two extracts, it should be added, are taken from an address on the Sermon on the Mount ! They are equalled, if not eclipsed, by the comment of no less eminent a divine than Professor Harnack on the treatment of Belgium :- " 500. Our Chancellor has, with the scrupulous Conscientiousness peculiar to him, admitted that we were guilty of a certain wrong [towards Belgium]. Hero I cannot follow him. . . . When David, in the pinch of necessity, took the show-bread from the table of the Lord, he was absolutely in the right ; for at that moment the letter of the law no longer existed.—Pnos. A. v. ILLaxamt."