The all-absorbing personality of William grows more and more jealous. He
would like to fill the whole stage of the theatre of the empire and of
the world itself. More than that, he even demands that the past should
date from himself, and he turns history inside out, having it written to
begin with his reign, and reascending the course of time. First himself,
then the house of Hohenzollern, then Prussia, and let that suffice. The
other dynasties, other kingdoms of Germany, count for so little that it
is sufficient merely to mention their existence. The history of which I
speak, written for the German Army, will be prescribed later on for use
of the high schools.

From each department of the public service William lifts an important
part of its business. From the Department of Education he takes the
direction of public worship, which, in his capacity as _summus
episcopus_, he proposes to control in person. From the War Department he
takes the section having control of maps and fortresses, which, he
proposes to place under the general staff and his own direction. He is
planning to make a province of Berlin, so that he himself may govern it
in military fashion, etc., etc. Is it possible that the mind of such a
man, thus inflated with pride, should not succumb to every temptation of
ambition? Is there any one of those about him, or amongst his subjects,
who can say where these ambitions will end? When one thinks of the mass
of ambitions and emotions that William II has exhausted since he came to
the throne, when one thinks of the difficult questions he has raised, the
obstacles he has created and the enterprises he has undertaken, how is it
possible not to _fear_ the future?

Germany is beginning to be oppressed by a feeling of uneasiness. She is
beginning to realise that her Emperor, by designing the orbit of his
activity on too large a scale, is producing the contrary effect, with the