THE GERMAN SOUL* To do indifferent justice to " the
German soul " in an English book is not at this moment very easy. Baron Friedrich von Hugel, who has just written a disquisition upon it, has the essential qualification for the task. He belongs both to England and to Germany. His mother was a Scotswoman, his father an Austrian. In this war his sympathies are wholly with the Allies. He is against Germany so far as her present enterprise goes, but he has a soft place in his heart for the German soul, led away towards perdition, as he believes it to be, by a false theory of life. The strange perversion of patriotism which has ceased Germany to worship herself will prove, ho thinks, her undoing. " A few days before the outbreak of the war," Baron von Hugel received, he tells us, a long letter " from a still young, highly cultivated South Gorman scholar and lecturer—a man who know English and England well." His corre- spondent, ho says, is " a delicately religious spirit, whose Protestantism was greatly softened and suffused by largo Catholic sympathies." The gist of the letter consisted " in the strange assertion and argument that German culture had by now, as a sheer matter of fact, fully assimilated all that deserved to live in the several civilizations of Greece and Rome, Italy, Franco, and England ; and hence that the spreading and the substitution, by moans even of the force of arms, of this German culture, now thus become the legitimate heir (because the actual quintessence) of all those other cultures, was both no more than justice on the part of Germany towards herself, and no kind of loss, but rather a great gain In fruitful con- centration, for Europe and humanity at large."
These words, coming from a non-military source, read almost maniacal ; and we cannot, now that we know with what consummate arrogance and cruelty they have been realized, do other than smile bitterly over the proud man's " delicately religious " soul. In Protestant ears the words ring insincere. All the same, we must agree with our author that it is possible for religion to exist in a man's mind and have very little effect not only upon his conduct but his practical theory of life. This con tradictory rule of life may, at any rate, receive theoretic adherence from the same individuaL Our author quotes at some length from the writings of Friedrich Naumann, a Lutheran pastor in Berlin, who seems to have relinquished his ecclesiastical position that he might preach a strange mixture of Christianity and perverted patriotism. It is easy for the English reader to laugh at his words or to read them with. feelings of disgust. It would be more profitable to read them in a humbler spirit. They express something which, while we do not express it, not a few good fellows amongst us do obviously feel. "The Gospel of the poor is," he says, " one of the standards of our life, but not the only standard." The modem State "is organized according to the principle, ' Thou shalt covet ' " ; and he calla it "a compound of human wills, of soldiers, of paragraphs, and of prisons." The compound is, he goes on, "in all its harshness, the prerequisite of culture. And it found its pattern form in Rome, not in Nazareth." It is not necessary to be a pacificist in order to feel a fervent hatred of militarism. Baron von Hugel argues that while it is consistent with the duty of a professing Christian to bear arms, it is not consistent to be a professing militarist. " How am I to say that Bismarck's preparations for the Schleswig-Holstein War were a service in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ ? " asks Naumann. " I cannot manage to do so," he gives answer,
• The Herman Soul in its Attitude Unearth Plies and Chridianity, Um State, out War. Two Studies by Baron Fr Jeddah von Haase, LL.D. London : J. IL Dena and Sons. [Is. en act.)
"Yet all the same, I admire these preparations. It does not occur to me to lament them. Not every doing of one's duty is Christian. Bismarck did his duty, for his avocation was the cultivation of power. But such a duty -and-its fulfilment are not directly an imitation of Christ." All the same, Naumann does-manage to persuade himself that Christ and Bismarck are both worthy of hero-worship. " The following. of the World-God produces the morality of the struggle for existence, and the service of the _Father of Jesus Christ produces the morality. of corn- passion. And yet they are not two Gods, but one God. Somehow or other their arms intertwine?' This is, of course, nothing but an attempt to unite in theory the service of God and Mammon :—
• " Militarism Is the foundation of ail order -in the State and of all _prosperity in the society of Europe. Say-all that you know against the military ! It will all be correct, for the description of battles cannot be more nalul than the reality. And then go-with me to where militarism existed in the past, and where it now exists no longer—to the countries by the Mediterranean. The man who does not see what the collapse of the Roman military government involved. isbeyond cure. All the evils of military power arc slight compared with the misery of a country in which no such rule exists. Dearth of soldiery means, in reality, ruins, decline, beggary, and war of all against all. And the smaller and the less developed are the armies, the • greater is the constant danger of war. An armed -peace is not beautiful, but it is better than all past conditions -known to us-through- history."
• Many an Englishman would to-day find it bard to combat this argu- ment, but.at least ho would not take Christ's name in his mouth while -he upheld it. Naumann's system is, however, almost evangelical upon one side :— " This means, 'for our practical life, that we construct our house of the State, not with the cedars of Lebanon,. but with the building-stones from the Roman Capitol. But in this house Jesus is still to-day to , proclaim His Gespetas He did-in the past in the Roman house. Hence we do not consult Jesus when we are concerned with things which belong to the domain of the construction of the State and 'of 'Political Economy."
No German—so Baron von 110g,e1 leads -us to believe—ever fears to put
his theory into practice, and, though he does notsay it, he obviously thinks that the road to Hell is paved with logic. An Englishman is in less danger of going to the Devil on. a false theory of life: because he distrusts: theory altogether. He proceeds as ways may open, and when foreigners; ask Public School masters -what theory of life England, puts before her:
upper-class'eons, the masters reply (aceoeding to our author) simply that they do not manufacture prigs in England. We are a people, he says,: of " loosely knit minds,"-and in his eyes this peculiarity saves us from the materialism and cruelty whit& spring from logicality. "Here is a horrible instance of the carrying out Of a terrible theory :— "A Scottish officer friend of mine, a-man of most carefed speech midi great- experience, described to me -what he -himself saw, as :a. member Of the -Britieh contingent in that international army under Field-Marshall
• von Waldersee, -soon after that address [the Kaiser's admonition! to rival the frightfulness of the Huns] outside of Pekin. He saw quite! harmless women-and children of the Chinese poor, who were looking on at the drill of a squad of German soldiers, deliberately-'shot down in obedience to the deliberate order of- the:commanding officer, a. friend -of my friend. And this officer, the act a000mplished, -very .quietly de-- fended his action to my friend' as truly-wise-.and: alone 'kind. Did not his interlocutor know-that thus to strike terror into the civilian popu- lation meant inducing them to bring pressure to bear upon their-govern- ment, for the prevention or ending of war—war which essentially means the suspension of all restraints ? "
' Such an instance -seems • finally- to dispose of the idea that Germany could ever colonize with advantage to'the world. 'NO nation ought to • bear rule over any flesh and blood but its own- who can thus sacrifice all the virtuea to the expedient of discipline.
Will Germany ever get away from the epiritual effects of- the terrible baptism of Bismarck ? 'Baron von Hegel does not exactly answer our question, because whoever reads. his book sees that it is to the Reforma-
tion, not to modern events, that he traces this spirit of what Germany calls patriotism. It is to Luther he traces'the subservience of conscience to race-worship. Yet he does 'believe that-Germany may, yet save her soul if she is completely defeated. That defeat is not the ordinary way of salvation may certainly be argued, and the words have an unreal sound ; but no one can disagree with 'Baron von - Tifton convincing argument that the soul of the persona:pa we call a State does change and does repent--does go through a new birth almost as does the soul of an individual, and, on the analogy Of the individual soul, one must admit that conversions have- often appeared to- bo -the meths of mis- fortune. Anyhow, a nation may experience a change of soul. 'It 'is because this is possible " that England has been able, for many a day, to abandon, after- a hundred years' war (full of brilliant victories and- transfigured for-the English imagination by the wizardry of Shakespeare), -all claims to France, -all pretence that that war was right : and Joan of 'Am, whom England burnt, was wrong ; that the English State end mation could so rapidly sink into frivolity under the Merry Monarch after their beret) -strenuousness under the grim Protector ; • that this same.England could, now for many a day, deliberately regret her attempted-coercion of her -American colonies, and make the greatest -sacrifices in atonement for peat injustice to Ireland—all this- is fact,-because the personalistic unity of the English State is 'a 'fact."
Baron von Hegel's love of theology-occasionally tempts him away -from the main theme of his study. -When thus specializing he becomes dull. -With this reservation, we. have-nothing but praise for a- book which is undoubtedly profound and conepicuouirly 'fair.
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