¶ And after all said in glorification of any special type of government, the stubborn fact remains that absolute equality, from a representative point of view, is a fiction unsupported by fact. The notorious incapacity and apathy of the masses is always, in the end, directed by central powers, exercised insidiously or openly as you please, but exercised nevertheless. In every political party we find a coterie, men of little wisdom it may be but leaders of the crowd; in every city commission is always one masterful man to whom the other members defer; in every banking house, one deciding voice; every religious organization must have a head, regardless of the number of counsellors; every ship a captain; every army a general; and, finally, in every family there should be the guidance and direction of a strong father. ¶ Is there not a ring of sincerity in Bismarck's manly acknowledgment of the inevitable equalities in the human stuff of which governments are composed? He saw only common sense in openly protesting that in any German government big enough and enduring enough to satisfy the German conception of responsibility, in a word German thoroughness, there must be, somewhere, a master-mind. ¶ For many years, and even today, Bismarck is in some quarters regarded as the arch-enemy of the common people, but his great work has stood the acid test of time. The German Empire, builded under Bismarck's broad ideas may be likened unto a wonderful watch, in which each part does its peculiar work without even a gambler's chance of going wrong. BOOK THE SIXTH Once a Man and Twice a Child CHAPTER XVII The Downfall 63 The secret discontent of the man who believed himself sole founder of the German Empire. ¶ When the Kaiser, on that eventful day in March, 1890, turned and told the old man to go, Bismarck received the heart-breaking sentence without a sign of protest. ¶ To a friend who called he told the news in a calm voice, a smile on his lips, congratulating himself on being able to resume his country life, of which he was so fond, of visiting again the forests on his estates, and "belonging to himself" in the few years that were yet left. ¶ "I'll soon be gone," he said, "and it is time I should take a rest."