Germany and the Germans from an American Point of ViewCollier, Price
History
Germany and the Germans from an American Point of View
Collier, Price
Germany; National characteristics, German
At Duesseldorf one of the theatres, managed by a woman, and supported
by the best people in the town, is not only a playhouse, but a school
for actors, and a proving-ground for the drama. It is a treat indeed
to attend the performances there. We have tried similar things in
America, but with sad results. Fifty millionaires, no one of whom had
ever read the text of a serious play in his life, build a temple for
the drama, but there are no plays, no actors, no audience, nothing is
accomplished. There is no critical body of real lovers of the drama,
and there are no cheap seats, and there is still that fatuous notion
that exclusiveness, except in the trifling matter of physical
propinquity, can be bought with dollars.
The only impenetrably exclusive thing in the world is intellect, he is
the only aristocrat left in these democratic days, and we are not
devoting much attention as yet to his breeding. We do not realize that
the only valuable democrat must be an aristocrat. "Culture seeks to do
away with classes and sects; to make the best that has been thought
and known in the world current everywhere; to make all men live in an
atmosphere of sweetness and light, where they may use ideas, as it
uses them itself, freely; nourished and not bound by them. This is the
social idea; and the men of culture are the true apostles of
equality."
In Germany there are more men of culture per thousand of the
population than in any other land, but they rule the country not by
"sweetness and light," but by force. This seems at first a
contradiction. It is not. Religion, life, and love are all savage
things. Because we have known men who preach but do not believe; men
who breathe and walk who have not lived; men who protest but who have
not loved, we are prone to think of religion, life, and love as soft.
We have conquered and chastened so much of nature: the air, the water,
the bowels of the earth that we fool ourselves with thinking that
culture also is tame, that religion, life, and love are tame too.
Savage things they are! You may know them by that! If you find them
nice, vivacious, amusing, amenable, be sure that they are forgeries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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