Spinoza's Short Treatise on God, Man and Human Welfare. Tr. by Lydia Gillingham Robinson. 50c. The Mechanistic Principle. By Paul Carus. 60c. Behind the Scenes with Mediums. By Abbot. 60c. Sent postpaid to any address in the U. P. U. at prices quoted. The Open Court Pub. Co., P. O. Drawer F, Chicago FOOTNOTES: [1] For translating "The Murder of the Elite." [2] One article only, "The Idols," may, I think, have been published in its entirety in _La Bataille syndicaliste_. [3] I leave my articles in their chronological order. I have changed nothing in them. The reader will notice, in the stress of events, certain contradictions and hasty judgments which I would modify today.... In general, the sentiments expressed have arisen out of indignation and pity. In proportion as the immensity of the ruin extends one feels the poverty of protest, as before an earthquake. "There is more than one war," wrote the aged Rodin to me on the 1st of October, 1914. "What is happening is like a punishment which falls on the world." [4] A telegram from Berlin (Wolff's Agency), reproduced by the _Gazette de Lousanne_, August 29, 1914, has just announced that "the old town of Louvain, rich in works of art, exists no more to-day." [5] Written after the bombardment of Rheims Cathedral. [6] When I wrote this, I had not yet seen the monstrous article by Thomas Mann (in the _Neue Rundschau_ of November 1914), where, in a fit of fury and injured pride, he savagely claimed for Germany, as a title to glory, all the crimes of which her adversaries accuse her. He dared to write that the present war was a war of German Kultur "against Civilization," proclaiming that German thought had no other ideal than militarism, and inscribes on his banner the following lines, the apology of force oppressing weakness: "_Den der Mensch verkümmert im Frieden,_ _Müssige Ruh ist das Grab des Muts._ _Das Gesetz ist der Freund des Schwachen,_ _Alles will es nur eben machen._ _Möchte gern die Welt verflachen,_ _Aber der Krieg lässt die Kraft erscheinen...._" (_Man deteriorates in peace. Idle rest is the tomb of courage. Law is the friend of the weak, it aims at levelling all; it would reduce the world to a level. War brings out strength._) Even so a bull in the arena, mad with rage, rushes with lowered head on the matador's sword, and impales himself. [7] As one of these 'pedants of barbarism' (so Miguel de Unamuno rightly describes them) writes, "one has the right to destroy; if one has the force to create" (Wer stark ist zu schaffen, der darf auch zerstören).--Friedr Gundolf: _Tat und Wort im Krieg_, published in the _Frankfurter Zeitung_, October 11th. Cf. the article of the aged Hans Thoma, in the _Leipziger Illustrierte Zeitung_ of October 1st. [8] _Jean-Christophe_, part V, "La Foire sur la Place." In vol. III of the English version.--TRANS. [9] At the very hour I wrote these lines, Charles Péguy died.