(And the world may once more be healed by the German nature, or character.) It came into vogue before the war. The Kaiser struck the keynote of the whole chorus of self-exaltation when he said (August 31, 1907): "The German people will be the granite block on which the good God may build and complete His work of Kultur in the world. Then will be fulfilled the word of the poet who said that the world will one day be healed by the German character." In the extracts collected in Nippold's "Der deutsche Chauvinismus" (a pre-war publication) the Geibel couplet appears at least four times--probably oftener. After the outbreak of the war, it is easier to reckon the utterances in which it does _not_ occur than those in which it does. Next in popularity to the "Wesen--genesen" catchword comes the Kaiser's brilliant saying, "I no longer know of any parties--I know only German brothers." He is no good German who does not quote this with reverent admiration. Then come four or five others which are about equally in request: Bismarck's "We Germans fear God, and nothing else in the world"; "the old _furor Teutonicus_"; "_oderint dum metuant_"; Arndt's Der Gott der Eisen wachsen liess, Der wollte keine Knechte-- (The God who made the iron grow meant none to be a bondman); and, finally, Und wenn die Welt voll Teufel waer', Es soll uns doch gelingen-- (And though the world were full of devils, we should succeed in spite of them.) Even a scholar of the distinction of Ulrich v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, though he avoids the Geibel tag, ends one of his orations by quoting "Deutschland ueber Alles." Imagine Sir Walter Raleigh or Prof. Gilbert Murray winding up an address with a selection from "Rule, Britannia"! One English quotation occurs as often as any, except the ubiquitous "Wesen-genesen." It is "My country, right or wrong," invariably quoted in the form, "Right or wrong, my country." This is supposed to be the shockingly immoral watchword of British patriotism. It matters nothing to the German pamphleteer that the maxim is American, and that it is never quoted in England--nor, I believe, in the country of its origin--except in a spirit of irony. And in the face of this deadly uniformity of sentiments, phraseology, and quotations, Professor Lasson has the audacity to assure us that "The German is personally independent. He wants to judge for himself. It is not so easy for him as for others blindly to follow this or that catchword!"