Nothing could be more thoroughly characteristic of the Prussian mind
than its utter misunderstanding of England. It exhibits all the
characteristics which we are accustomed to associate with “German
Thought,” and especially the combination of enormous industry in the
accumulation of facts with an utter inability to appreciate such facts
as cannot be catalogued and an amazing stupidity in passing judgment
even upon the facts which are recognised.
Thus, before the outbreak of war, the Prussians, knowing that we were
in the main a commercial people, immediately deduced the conclusion
that we should never fight for any other purpose than that of
making money. They found themselves in error. Similarly, after our
intervention, they looked up their documents and, discovering that
we had never had a very large army, concluded that we were not to be
reckoned with seriously in the field of military operations. Our naval
power they allowed for, for they could count the ships and had them all
duly docketed. But our army was “contemptible,” and would certainly
remain so.
That a nation, not originally military, could transform itself into a
nation in arms by the mere action of patriotic enthusiasm and anger
was a thing altogether undreamed of in the Prussian philosophy. The
revelation that the thing was so has produced first, incredulity, and
then a sort of bewilderment, as if all the foundations of “scientific
thought,” as the Germans understand it, had collapsed--as, indeed, they
had.
The thing that has not collapsed is the eternal strength which belongs
to a nation utterly convinced with the justice of its cause. The thing
is not possible to Prussians; but it is possible to Englishmen, as the
Prussians are already beginning to know.