Culture Decayed in Imperial Rome.
No fiction is more palpably contradicted by history than that relied on
by the school to which von Bernhardi belongs--that culture, literary,
scientific, and artistic, flourishes best in great military States. The
decay of art and literature in the Roman world began just when Rome's
military power had made that world one great and ordered State. The
opposite view would be much nearer the truth, though one must admit that
no general theory regarding the relations of art and letters to
Governments and political conditions has ever yet been proved to be
sound.
[_Note--Gen. von Bernhardi's knowledge of current history may be
estimated by the fact that he assumes_ (1) _that trade rivalry
makes war probable between Great Britain and the United States;_
(2) _that he believes that the Indian princes and peoples are
likely to revolt against Great Britain should she be involved in
war, and_ (3) _that he expects her self-governing colonies to take
such an opportunity of severing their connection with her._]
The world is already too uniform and is becoming more uniform every day.
A few leading languages, a few forms of civilization, a few types of
character, are spreading out from the seven or eight greatest States and
extinguishing weaker languages, forms, and types.
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