We will never get at Bismarck through a study of the interplay of politics; suppose we state his case in terms of human nature? ¶ From this time on, the shelves are freighted with volume after volume of German political jargon, forming a bewildering diagonal of forces crossing and recrossing in thousands the tangled threads. Bismarck's presence runs throughout, but it is a long and complex story, hard to comprehend and difficult to compress without sacrificing important details. ¶ We find "Grand Germans" against "Petty Germans"; Grimm, the philologist, has his say against Simson, the jurist; Arndt, the poet, against Welcker, the publicist; the Frankfort parliament offering its paper crown to the King of Prussia, imploring him to become a democratic liberator and unifier; and on the other hand we hear Bismarck in the Berlin Diet, urging the king to stand firm for the Old Regime; arks of free-speech from Polish insurgents, also ill-advised youth waving banners of blood; mobs in the Berlin streets, whiffs of grapeshot here and there to clear the air; John of Austria urging something and the Prince Consort of England advising, post-haste, the kings of Prussia, Bavaria, Saxony and Wuertemberg; the Assembly manufacturing Magna Chartas, after noisy clashes of opinion. ¶ "There is not enough practical sense behind all," says Bismarck, "to build a political chicken-coop, to say nothing of an empire." Then, the patriots, so-called, leave for America, worn out with waiting for some new freedom set down on paper; and of the motley crew, not one is sufficiently wise, or strong enough to make head or tail of the complex situation. Barricades are thrown up, artillery plays upon the mobs, and general blood-letting follows; thousands of lives are snuffed out, to be charged up as advance sacrifices for political cohesion. Hapsburger against Hohenzollern, Protestant against Catholic, Ultramontanes beholding the reign of Anti-Christ; Guelphs and Wittelsbachs, protesting their own peculiar and ancient lineage against self-seeking latter-day upstart aristocrats! ¶ And the problem grew darker as the months went by. * * * * * ¶ You may read till you are dizzy and then stand back and try to get a bird's-eye view of the complicated quarrels of the Diet; the vagaries of Frankfort or Berlin; the brawls of this poet, that student, editor, publicist, or princeling; with soldiers of fortune hovering around waiting, like vultures that have already a whiff of the carrion, from afar. Instead of a bird's-eye, the incoherent mass of details comes piecemeal, and you get the toad's-eye view;--till we apply the simple idea that behind it all is elemental human nature, with politics as a mere frame to the picture.