Most progressive races have been those who
combined willingness to learn with strength, which enabled them to
receive without loss to their own quality, retaining their primal vigor,
but entering into the labors of others, as the Teutons who settled
within the dominions of Rome profited by the lessons of the old
civilization.
Let me disclaim once more before I close, any intention to attribute to
the German people the principles set forth by the school of Treitschke
and Bernhardi--the school which teaches hatred of peace and
arbitration, disregard of treaty obligations, scorn for weaker peoples.
We in England would feel even deeper sadness than weighs upon us now if
we could suppose that such principles had been embraced by the nation
whose thinkers have done so much for human progress and who have
produced so many shining examples of Christian saintliness; but when
those principles have been ostentatiously proclaimed, when a peaceful
neutral country which the other belligerent had solemnly and repeatedly
undertaken to respect has been invaded and treated as Belgium has been
treated, and when attempts are made to justify these deeds as incidental
to a campaign for civilization and culture, it becomes necessary to
point out how untrue and how pernicious such principles are.
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