This duel was utterly senseless, brought about as it had been by a laughably trivial occurrence; and, moreover, it was in the highest degree unfair, despite the fact that both duellists would face each other under similar conditions, with similar weapons, and with the same sun and the same wind. It was unfair, because the stakes were of such totally unequal value. A man in his prime, who had done good work in his profession and promised to do still more, must pit himself against an irresponsible young fellow, who up to the present had shirked everything serious. And then Güntz's position as husband and father must be compared with his opponent's irregular life. An absolute cypher was opposed to a number that counted; and, moreover, to a number doubled in its capacity. Güntz said roundly that he regarded his life as too valuable to be thrown into the balance of this quarrel. Then he went more into detail with regard to the doubts which for weeks had been harassing him and driving him towards the decision to renounce his right to wear the uniform of an officer; the strong doubts as to whether, under existing conditions, German officers were not undertaking work of no benefit to the future. He did not mean to say that the calling of an officer was an altogether unproductive vocation. The yearly training of a large number of soldiers, who supported the credit of the kingdom, and thereby insured peace, was, no doubt, a positive factor in both political and social life. But was this bulwark, which year by year was rebuilt and strengthened anew, really secure enough to withstand storms and assaults? That was just what he doubted. The organisation of the German army rested on foundations which had been laid nearly a hundred years ago. Prussian institutions, tested by many victories, had been transferred to the new empire, and were still continued. Since the great war they had never seriously been put to the proof; and during the three last decades they had only been altered in the most trifling details. In three long decades! And in one of those decades the world at large had advanced as much as in the whole previous century! The system of the military training of the men, evolved in an age of patriarchal bureaucratic government, had remained pedantically the same, counting on an ever-present patriotism. Meanwhile, in place of the previous overwhelming preponderance of country recruits, a fresh element had now been introduced: the strong social-democratic tendencies of the industrial workers, who, it is true, did not compose the majority of the contingents, but who, with their highly-developed intelligence, always exerted a very powerful influence.