And what shall we say of the German army? (In the moment and merely
for the sake of brevity I leave the Belgians, Russians, Italians
and Serbians aside.)

When I think of the great German army now scattered over Europe,
fighting along that immense line (including the Austrian portion)
of some 1,400 miles in extent; when I think of this on the whole so
wonderfully goodhearted, genial, sociable people, these regiments
of Westphalians, Wurtemburgers, Saxons, Bavarians, Hungarians, these
men and boys from the fields and farms of Posen and Pomerania, the
forests of Thuringia, the vineyards of the Rhine or the vegetable
gardens of the Palatinate, these students from the Universities
and scholars from the Technical Schools; plunged in this insane War,
fighting in very truth for they know not what, and pouring out their
life-blood, like water in obedience to the long-prepared schemes
of their rulers -- I am seized with an immense pity.

They have been told they are fighting to save their Fatherland.
And as far as our argument is concerned it does not matter how
falsely they have been instructed or what grain of actual truth
there may be in the contention.

The point is that the vast majority of them believe this to be
true; and they too, dear children, are giving their lives for their
hearths and homes -- they too are leading this hateful existence in
trenches and mines, called to it by what seems to them a good
conscience, and carried onward (in company with those they have
left at home) in the mad millrace of public opinion.