poured forth and eagerly accepted by the public, and a veritable Fool's
Paradise of German suprernacy arose. It is only in this way, by noting
the long-preceding ignorance of the German citizen in the matter of
politics, his absolute former non-interference in public affairs, and
the dazed state of his mind when he suddenly found himself on the
supposed pinnacle of world-power--that we can explain his easy
acceptance of such cheap and _ad hoc_ publications as those of
Bernhardi and Houston Chamberlain, and the fact that he was so easily
rushed into the false situation of the present war.[8] The absurd
_canards_ which at an early date gained currency, in Berlin--as that the
United States had swallowed Canada, that the Afghans in mass were
invading; India, that Ireland was plunged in civil war--point in the
same direction; and so do the barbarities of the Teutonic troops in the
matters of humanity and art. For though in all war and in the heat of
battle there are barbarities perpetrated, it argues a strange state of
the German national psychology that in this case a heartless severity
and destruction of the enemy's life and property should have been
preached beforehand, and quite deliberately, by professors and
militarists, and accepted, apparently, by the general public. It argues,
to say the least, a strange want of perception of the very unfavourable
impression which such a programme must inevitably excite in the mind of
the world at large.

* * * * *

It is, no doubt, pleasant in its way for us British to draw this picture
of Germany, and to trace the causes which led the ruling powers there,
years ago, to make up their minds for war, because, of course, the
process in some degree exonerates us. But, as I have already said, I
have dwelt on Germany, not only because she affords such a good