von Bernhardi, and they valued
peace, not war, as a means to civilization and culture. They had not
learned in the school of Treitschke that peace means decadence and war
is the true civilizing influence.
Great Achievements of Small States.
The doctrines above stated are, as I have tried to point out, well
calculated to alarm small States which prize their liberty and their
individuality, and have been thriving under the safeguard of treaties;
but there are other considerations affecting those States which ought to
appeal to men in all countries, to strong nations as well as to weak
nations.
The small States whose absorption is now threatened have been a potent
and useful--perhaps the most potent and useful--factor in the advance of
civilization. It is in them and by them that most of what is most
precious in religion, in philosophy, in literature, in science, and in
art has been produced.
The first great thoughts that brought man into true relation with God
came from a tiny people inhabiting a country smaller than Denmark. The
religions of mighty Babylon and populous Egypt have vanished; the
religion of Israel remains in its earlier as well as in that later form
which has overspread the world.
The Greeks were a small people, not united in one great State, but
scattered over coasts and among hills in petty city communities, each
with its own life.
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