¶ "I admit I am full of prejudices, sucked in with my mother's milk. If I think of a Jew, face to face with me as a representative of the king's sacred majesty, and have to obey him, I must confess that I should feel myself deeply broken and depressed. The sincere self-respect with which I now attempt to fulfil my duties toward the state would leave me! I share these feelings with the mass of large strata of people, and I am not ashamed of their society." * * * * * ¶ Thus, now at this supreme moment, when with voice of brass our Bismarck is making his entry into the world of affairs with his sharp words on Christians and Jews, and more especially with his uncompromising conception that kings are indeed the personal representatives of God on this earth, we do see that Bismarck stems from a fighting race. All his years, this Bismarck was a frightful hater. ¶ With the sorry figure of the world-oppressed Jew in our eyes and the malignancy of this new Jew-baiter, it is well that at the very outset this be made clear: That whatever Bismarck was or was not, at least he was no hypocrite. His words always fall like the wrath of God. It is a solemn fact that he changed his point of view many, many times--even as you and I--but there is always the ring of sincerity about it that even the acid test of long time is unable to dissolve. * * * * * ¶ It was this tremendous earnestness--this sincerity--that made Bismarck feared, hated and despised. Against your will, you are forced to believe what this giant says, no matter how mocking, how insolent, how absurd his charges! Some tell us that Bismarck's ancestry stems from Bohemia, others trace the Bismarcks to Russia, still others assert Jewish origin. This much is a fact: from a geographical point, the family name comes from the little river Biese, near Stendal. ¶ Bismarck's passion and prejudice against Jews was proverbial. It did indeed often turn him, for the time being, into a mad dog! Near the close of life, in retirement at Friedrichsruh, some candid friend desecrated the great man's retirement by sending him a copy of a book by an anonymous writer, "Bismarck, the Jew." Ordinarily, Bismarck paid no attention to social lampoons, but on this day as he read the book aloud to guests, his anger became black and terrifying! ¶ "I am determined to have the law on the audacious writer!" Bismarck's guests saw the old man in one of his moods of frightful rage. But next day something intervened--and Bismarck never brought suit for damages. * * * * * ¶ Here is one thing that you must never forget in studying great men: That it is possible, nay inevitable, for a man to be at once very great and very small.