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The Wrack of the Storm by Maurice Maeterlinck
page 61 of 147 (41%)
hegemony, which she was not able to prolong because this hegemony was
more the work of a prodigious but accidental genius than the fruit of
a real and intrinsic power. Next came the turn of England, who to-day
possesses the greatest empire that the world has seen since the days
of ancient Rome, that is to say, more than a fifth part of the
habitable globe. But this vast empire rests no more than did
Napoleon's upon an incontestible force, inasmuch as up to this day it
was defended only by an army less numerous and less well-equipped than
that of many a smaller nation, thus almost inevitably inviting war, as
Professor Cramb pointed out a year or two ago in his prophetic book,
_Germany and England_, which has only recently aroused the interest
which it deserves.

It seemed, therefore, as if between these two Powers, which were more
illusory than real, pending the advent of Russia, whose hour had not
yet struck; in this gap in history, between a nation on the verge of
its decline, or at least seemingly incapable of defending itself, and
a nation that was still too young and incapable of attack, fate
offered a magnificent place to whoso cared to take it. This is what
Germany felt, at first instinctively, urged by all the ill-defined
forces that impel mankind, and subsequently, in these latter years,
with a consciousness that became ever clearer and more persistent. She
grasped the fact that her turn had come to reign over the earth, that
she must take her chance and seize the opportunity that comes but
once. She prepared to answer the call of fate and, supported by the
mysterious aid which it lends to those whom it summons, she did
answer, we must admit, in an astonishing and most formidable manner.

She was within a hair's breadth of succeeding. A little less prolonged
and less gallant resistance on the part of Belgium, a suspicious
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