Egotism--subjectivity in thought and wilfulness in morals--which is the soul of German philosophy, [Pg 7] is by no means a gratuitous thing. It is a genuine expression of the pathetic situation in which any animal finds itself upon earth, and any intelligence in the universe. It is an inevitable and initial circumstance in life. But like every material accident, it is a thing to abstract from and to discount as far as possible. The perversity of the Germans, the childishness and sophistry of their position, lies only in glorifying what is an inevitable impediment, and in marking time on an earthly station from which the spirit of man--at least in spirit--is called to fly. This glorified and dogged egotism, which a thousand personal and technical evidences had long revealed to me in German philosophy, might now, I should think, be evident to the whole world. Not that the German philosophers are responsible for the war, or for that recrudescence of corporate fanaticism which prepared it from afar. They merely shared and justified prophetically that spirit of uncompromising self-assertion and metaphysical conceit which the German nation is now reducing to action. It is a terrible thing to have a false religion, all the more terrible the deeper its sources are in the human soul. Like many a false religion before it, this which now inspires the Germans has made a double assault upon mankind, one with the secular arm, and another by solemn asseverations and sophistries. This assault, [Pg 8] though its incidental methods may be dubious, has been bold and honest enough in principle. It has been like those which all conquerors and all founders of militant religions have made at intervals against liberty or reason. And the issue will doubtless be the same. Liberty may be maimed, but not killed; reason may be bent, but not broken. The dark aggression is to be repelled, if possible, by force of arms; but failing that, it will be nullified in time by the indomitable moral resistance which maturer races, richer in wisdom, can exert successfully against the rude will of the conqueror. [Pg 9] CONTENTS I. THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF GERMAN PHILOSOPHY II. THE PROTESTANT HERITAGE III. TRANSCENDENTALISM IV. HINTS OF EGOTISM IN GOETHE V. SEEDS OF EGOTISM IN KANT VI. TRANSCENDENTALISM PERFECTED VII. FICHTE ON THE MISSION OF GERMANY VIII. THE EGOTISM OF IDEAS IX. EGOTISM AND SELFISHNESS X. THE BREACH WITH CHRISTIANITY XI. NIETZSCHE AND SCHOPENHAUER XII. THE ETHICS OF NIETZSCHE XIII. THE SUPERMAN XIV. HEATHENISM XV. GERMAN GENIUS XVI. EGOTISM IN PRACTICE INDEX EGOTISM IN GERMAN PHILOSOPHY [Pg 11] CHAPTER I THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF GERMAN PHILOSOPHY