Herr Paul Rohrbach, who is generally more moderate in his expressions, has written a pamphlet entitled _Warum es der Deutsche Krieg ist_ ("Why this is the German War"). It would be useless to insist on the general aspects of the question. Let us consider only a few of the immediate consequences of this frame of mind: militarism, disdain for others, cynicism, and absence of the critical spirit. 1. MILITARISM. _Might comes before Right._ Bismarck has given us a precise formula of the cult of brute force, "Might comes before right!" Nietzsche has gone further, "Might creates right." "You say that a good cause sanctifies even war? I tell you that a good war sanctifies any cause!" (_Thus Spake Zarathustra_). Herr Maximilian Harden, the well-known polemical writer, expressed the same idea in a lecture delivered at Duisbourg and reproduced in _K.Z._ (8th December, 1914). It is expressed with equal lucidity in an article published in _Zeit im Bild_ (19th November, 1914), and signed _Vitus Bug_; the author, after inquiring into the reasons which make Germany hated, adds: "Let us be victorious, and people will immediately discover that we were in the right!" It is, consequently, towards the army that the essential aspirations of the German nation converge; everything must give way to the military interest; the moment this is in question there is no longer any room for morality, says Professor Rein, of the University of Jena (_N.R.C._, 22nd January, 1915, morning), nor for humanity, says Herr Erzberger (_N.R.C._, 6th February, 1915, evening), nor even for the law of nations, declares Professor Beer, of the University of Leipzig (_Völkerrecht und Krieg_). In other countries people have remained simple enough to believe that it is precisely in time of war that the prescriptions of international law should be most strictly respected. Nothing of the sort, say the Germans; the moment war breaks out everyday justice can only efface itself. On the slightest accusation, the least pretext, or even without any, they begin to shoot and to burn. If by accident those put to death are innocent, or if there was in truth no complaint to be made against the inhabitants of the houses burned to ashes, it is obviously regrettable; but such commonplace considerations will not prevent the German army from inflicting on the nearest village a punishment any less exemplary. _Es ist Krieg_: in this phrase is contained the whole psychology of the German soldier in war-time. "Do you suppose," said a German at Louvain, "that we've got time to make inquiries?" (_N.R.C._, 9th September, 1914, morning). "You understand clearly," said an officer at Francorchamps, "that we cannot stop the German army to inquire if this man has really fired on us; he was accused of doing so; isn't that sufficient reason for shooting him?" * * * * *