Now that we have the proper standpoint from which to watch the general
tendency of events like these, we can form some estimate of the nature of
German ambition and the results of the personal ascendancy of the Kaiser.
We speak vaguely of militarism. Fortunately, we have a very valuable
document to enable us to understand what precisely German militarism
signifies. General von Bernhardi's _Germany and the Next War_ is one of
the most interesting, as well as most suggestive, of books, intended to
illustrate the spirit of German ambition. Bernhardi writes like a
soldier. Such philosophy as he possesses he has taken from Nietzsche. His
applications of history come from Treitschke. He has persuaded himself
that the main object of human life is war, and the higher the nation the
more persistently must it pursue preparations for war. Hence the best men
in the State are the fighting men. Ethics and religion, so far as they
deprecate fighting and plead for peace, are absolutely pernicious. Culture
does not mean, as we hoped and thought, the best development of scientific
and artistic enlightenment, but merely an all-absorbing will-power, an
all-devouring ambition to be on the top and to crush every one else. The
assumption throughout is that the German is the highest specimen of
humanity. Germany is especially qualified to be the leader, and the only
way in which it can become the leader is to have such overwhelming
military power that no one has any chance of resisting. Moreover, all
methods are justified in the sacred cause of German culture--duplicity,
violence, the deliberate sowing of dissensions between possible rivals,
incitements of Asiatics to rise against Europeans. All means are to be
adopted to win the ultimate great victory, and, of course, when the
struggle comes there must be no misplaced leniency to any of the inferior
races who interpose between Germany and her legitimate place in the
sun.[3] The ideal is almost too naïve and too ferocious to be conceived by
ordinary minds. Yet here it all stands in black and white. According to
Bernhardi's volume German militarism means at least two things. First the