The moral energy of nations, as of individuals, is only sustained by
an ideal higher than themselves, and stronger than themselves, to
which they cling firmly when they feel their courage waver. Where is
the ideal of the Germany of to-day? The time when her philosophers
proclaimed the inviolability of right, the eminent dignity of the
person, the duty of mutual respect among nations, is no more. Germany,
militarized by Prussia, has cast aside those noble ideas, ideas she
received for the most part from the France of the eighteenth century
and of the Revolution. She has made for herself a new soul, or rather
she has meekly accepted the soul Bismarck has given her. To him
has been attributed the famous maxim "Might is Right". But in truth
Bismarck never pronounced it, for he had well guarded himself against a
distinction of right from might. Right was simply in his view what is
willed by the strongest, what is consigned by the conqueror in the law
he imposes on the conquered. In that is summed up his whole morality.
Germany to-day knows no other. She, too, worships brute force. And
because she believes herself the strongest, she is altogether absorbed
in self-adoration. Her energy comes from her pride. Her moral force
is only the confidence which her material force inspires in her. And
this means that in this respect she is living on reserves without means
of replenishment. Even before England had commenced to blockade her
coasts, she had blockaded herself morally, in isolating herself from
every ideal capable of giving her new life.
So she will see her forces waste and her courage at the same time.
But the energy of our soldiers is drawn from something which does not
waste, from an ideal of justice and freedom. Time has no hold on us.
To the force which feeds only on its own brutality we are opposing
that which seeks outside and above itself a principle of life and
renovation. Whilst the one is gradually spending itself, the other is
continually re-making itself. The one is already wavering, the other
abides unshaken. Have no fear, our force will slay theirs.
HENRI LOUIS BERGSON
_By permission of the Publishers,
T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd.,
London, England_