ANTHONY M. LUDOVICI.
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DAVID STRAUSS,

THE CONFESSOR AND THE WRITER.

DAVID STRAUSS
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I.

Public opinion in Germany seems strictly to forbid any allusion to the
evil and dangeious consequences of a war, more particularly when the
war in question has been a victorious one. Those writers, therefore,
command a more ready attention who, regarding this public opinion as
final, proceed to vie with each other in their jubilant praise of the
war, and of the powerful influences it has brought to bear upon
morality, culture, and art. Yet it must be confessed that a gieat
victory is a great danger. Human nature bears a triumph less easily
than a defeat; indeed, it might even be urged that it is simpler to
gain a victory of this sort than to turn it to such account that it
may not ultimately proxe a seiious rout.

But of all evil results due to the last contest with France, the most
deplorable, peihaps, is that widespread and even universal error of
public opinion and of all who think publicly, that German culture was
also victorious in the struggle, and that it should now, therefore, be
decked with garlands, as a fit recognition of such extraordinary