And to me a famous German poet wrote:
Honored Baroness:
Is there need of an express assurance of my warmest approbation of the
ends and aims of the Peace League? And yet, as I am convinced that
mankind, ruled as they are more by passions and instincts than by
reason and love, will approach these ends only by the civilizing
labors of centuries if they ever do at all, it goes against my grain
to express in solemn protests, from which I am unable to hope for any
practical result, pious wishes which for a nobler humane minority are
self-evident. As long as European civilization is still threatened by
a half-Asiatic barbarism which will never submit to an arbitrator’s
decision but will yield only to force, I regard the _Ceterum censeo_
of such congresses even as a danger, like everything else by which our
readiness for defense, indispensable in the interest of the world’s
peace, is impaired.
With sincere respect
Yours very devotedly
Paul Heyse