GERMAN MENTALITY [To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—That much-maligned
diplomat and political scientist, Nicolas Machiavelli (b. 1469), bequeathed to us his thumb- nail Picture of Germany in that momentous Renaissance century which saw the fall of Constantinople and the discovery by Europeans of the Americas and the Indies. It shows us German mentality emerging from the melting-pot of the Middle Ages. Germanism, lacking the protection of natural frontiers, was in the north already developing an ideal of warrior-heroism enregimented in shining armour. Machia- velli's Picture of Germany illustrates the accuracy of his observation of the salient and recurring characteristics of Deutschtum between those longitudes in that climatic and geopolitical position.
" There are (he observes) indeed few States (cities) of Germany which had not solid reserves. This results from the fact that they made little expenditure, since they use their funds chiefly for munitions of war. . . . Nothing is more admirable than the public order which they follow. Self-sufficiency in case of war is the principal object of their attention, as also the provision of occupa- tion for their workmen. Their soldiers cost them little, for all their citizens are armed and exercised . . They spend on their clothes only about two florins in ten years. And all live according to this standard of self-expenditure . . . which is much lower than ours. Thus it results that money is not taken out because they content themselves with the products of their own country. On the contrary, much money comes in to them which results from their manufactures with which they are flooding Italy."
—I arn, Sir, your obedient servant,
46 Pall Mall, TRACY PHILIPPS.
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