contradiction to our innermost nature.'

"As we cannot change our nature, it will be good if we take over for
good and all a number--a very considerable number,--of these European
pike. That will occupy the German peasant and give an outlet to his
superfluous energies. There will be no leisure-energy to discharge
itself in party strife. Further, we must build Europe up again. It stood
on rotten foundations, and now it has fallen to pieces. We shall erect
it again on a German basis, and there will be work enough."[30]

[Footnote 30: Hermann Bahr: "Kriegssegen" ("The Blessings of War").
Published in Munich, 1915, p. 5 _et seq_.]




CHAPTER V

WARS AND RUMOURS OF WARS


It would be more than human if the German nation had actually realized
the lyrical picture painted by two well-known writers in the preceding
chapter. German newspapers, it is true, prove that the national unity so
loudly acclaimed was no empty word; moreover, they show conclusively
that grumblers and half-hearted enthusiasts were not lacking. It would
probably be more correct to describe them as "sober-minded patriots."
These elements had, however, to use a colloquialism, an "exceedingly
rough time."