He avows on many occasions his life-long regret that he did not enter the army as a career, instead of taking up the civil service; he digs into his family records and proudly numbers each Bismarck who carried arms, even down to distant cousins, and is never so happy as when telling of Bismarcks on many blood-drenched fields. Above all else, he everlastingly insists that behind his demands for his King is the direct will of God. ¶ There is not the slightest doubt that as time passed and Bismarck kept telling over and over for years that the King represented God's will on this earth, true Prussians came at last to believe it more and more; for the reason that it was in their blood to believe, as it is the nature of a bull-dog to fight, a glutton to eat, a thief to steal, the sun to shine. * * * * * ¶ Bismarck called on heaven to send its avenging lightnings on the heads of those who deserted their monarch, to their perpetual dishonor; could think of no crime more monstrous than ingratitude to his King, especially to a king by the grace of God. And Bismarck declared again and again, as his deepest conviction, that the Prussian crown was encircled by a heavenly aureole. In short, Bismarck revived in its purest and most uncompromising form the doctrine of Divine-right. ¶ In an age seemingly out of touch with this iron-bound mold of the Feudal past, Bismarck would have failed miserably were it not that he touched a responsive side of Prussian character--dog-like loyalty to authority, compounded of military glory and a pale shimmering ghost of religious aspiration. The governing fact of the whole situation was psychological rather than physical; and all this stupendous cannonading at Gravelotte, Sedan, Koeniggraetz, and the magnificent drama in the Hall of Mirrors, were after all merely so many evidences that Bismarck better than all the tribe of his objectors knew the psychological core of Prussian character. ¶ Bismarck brought down the wrath of God on those rival leaders who dared to be disloyal to his Divine-right King, and flew into frenzy at the very thought that a genuine Prussian should expect wisdom from the common people. Behind all this, was always the solid appeal to Prussian military-cadet idea of loyalty and strong politico-religious instincts. ¶ Manipulating this psychological side, invisible yet very real, Bismarck shows his genius as a constructive statesman. Without this intuitive touch of Prussian consciousness, all the lustre that Bismarck ultimately shed on the Imperial crown would have been impossible. ¶ Thus, we behold Otto von Bismarck, the rude, blond, Pomeranian giant--in spite of his coarse speeches, his brawls, his political card-stacking, his enormous egotism, his passionate seeking after power--play with Shakespearian subtlety on the strings of human passion. There is no larger character-side to our Bismarck; so study it well and reflect on its wide meaning.