von Bernhardi, who entered in more detail into the technical and
strategical aspects of the programme. The rude and almost brutal
frankness of both writers may be admired; but the want of real depth and
breadth of view cannot be concealed and must be deplored. The arguments
in favour of force, of unscrupulousness, of terrorism are--especially in
Bernhardi[14]--casuistical to a degree. They are those of a man who is
determined to press his country into war at all costs, and who will use
any kind of logic as long as it will lead in his direction. The whole
movement--largely made possible by the political ignorance of the
mass-people, of which I have spoken in a former chapter--culminated in
an extraordinary national fever of ambition; and in the announcement of
schemes for the Germanization of the world, almost juvenile in the want
of experience and the sense of proportion which they display. It would
not be fair to take one writer as conclusive; but as a _specimen_ of the
kind of thing we may quote the following extract (given by Mr. H.A.L.
Fisher, the Oxford historian, in his able brochure _The War: Its Causes
and Issues_) from the writings of Bronsart von Schellendorf: "Do not let
us forget the civilizing task which the decrees of Providence have
assigned to us. Just as Prussia was destined to be the nucleus of
Germany, so the regenerated Germany shall be the nucleus of a future
Empire of the West. And in order that no one shall be left in doubt, we
proclaim from henceforth that our continental nation has a right to the
sea, not only to the North Sea, but to the Mediterranean and Atlantic.
Hence we intend to absorb one after another all the provinces which
neighbour on Prussia. We will successively annex Denmark, Holland,
Belgium, Northern Switzerland, then Trieste and Venice, finally Northern
France from the Sambre to the Loire. This programme we fearlessly
pronounce. It is not the work of a madman. The Empire we intend to found
will be no Utopia. We have ready to our hands the means of founding it,
and no coalition in the world can stop us."