It would be next to impossible to find anywhere a loftier, clearer, or more minutely correct record of what preceded and caused the war of '70, than in the earlier volumes of Sybel's "History"; for up to the reverses of France, and the substitution of German for French predominance, we are still--in all connected with Germany,--in presence of the Prussia of the past, of the Prussia whose social conditions were fixed by Frederick the Great. Men are simply pawns upon the board; their fate has no influence on others--the fate of kings, queens, and high chivalric orders, is alone of any import to the constituted realm. Nations obey and question not. They are represented by mouldy, defunct formulae, and as yet no living popular voice, save that of the revolution of 1789, has been raised to ask where was the underlying life of the innominate crowd? But the revolution spoke too loudly, and like the tragedy queen in Hamlet, "protested too much." In external Europe, and mostly in over-drilled Prussia, the _elite_ only spoke, and under strict military surveillance, exercised by privilege of birth, the officer's uniform remained the sign of all title to pre-eminence. For these reasons this history must be accepted as the perfect chronicle of the occurrences which marked the time before and immediately after the fall of Sedan. When later the dormant life that was underneath awoke, breathed, and became manifest, Sybel's official tone no longer struck the true note; the heart of peoples had begun to beat, and disturbed its vibrations. Humanity was astir everywhere, and setting the barriers of etiquette at defiance. Not only were dry registers based on blue books insufficient, but the failure of the vital power that engenders other and further life began to be felt. There was no pulse; the current was stagnant, had no onward flow. When this moment came, the truth of the narrative ceased. Henceforth, it told of only the things of another age, and told them in the dialect of a bygone tongue. It was the official report of what had taken place in Old Russia written involuntarily under the omnipotent but benumbing inspiration of the spirit of caste. II. When the volume of M. Levy Bruehl appeared in September of last year, its name was instantaneously found for it by one of the leaders of historical criticism in France. Ere one week had passed, M. Albert Sorel had christened it "_l' Idee elle Fait_,"[4] and the public of Paris had ratified the title by all but universal acclaim. [4] "_Le Temps_," 9th September, 1890. In those words M. Sorel proclaimed the concrete sense of the book, and no doubt was left as to what was the meaning of the author who had so freely undertaken to investigate the "developments of the German national conscience."