their monarch and their feudal caste; that no blame attaches to the
Germany we know, which is so sympathetic and so cordial--the Germany
of quaint old houses and open-hearted greeting, the Germany that sits
under its lime-trees beneath the clear light of the moon--but only to
Prussia, hateful, arrogant Prussia; that the homely, peace-loving,
Bavarian, the genial and hospitable dwellers on the banks of the
Rhine, the Silesian and Saxon and I know not who besides--for all
these will suddenly have become whiter than snow and more inoffensive
than the sheep in an English fold--that they all have merely obeyed,
have been compelled to obey orders which they detested but were unable
to resist. We are face to face with reality now; let us look at it
well and pronounce our sentence; for this is the moment when we hold
the proofs in our hands, when the elements of crime are hot before us
and shout out the truth that soon will fade from our memory. Let us
tell ourselves now, therefore, now, that all that we shall be told
hereafter will be false; and let us unflinchingly adhere to what we
decide at this moment, when the glare of the horror is on us.


3

It is not true that in this gigantic crime there are innocent and
guilty, or degrees of guilt. They stand on one level, all those who
have taken part in it. The German from the North has no more special
craving for blood and outrage than he from the South has special
tenderness or pity. It is, very simply, the German, from one end of
his country to the other, who stands revealed as a beast of prey which
the firm will of our planet finally repudiates. We have here no
wretched slaves dragged along by a tyrant king who alone is
responsible. Nations have the government which they deserve, or