to us; would this be so very wrong, and could those opponents, who, of course, for their own part may likewise think what they will, take it amiss that we should be of this opinion? But no, we must not dare to think that. We must at the same time recognize how wrong it is ever to have a will other than theirs, and to resist them; we must bless our defeats as the best thing that could happen to us, and bless them as our greatest benefactors. It cannot be otherwise, and they hope this much of our good sense. But why should I go on expounding what was expounded with great exactness almost two thousand years ago, for example, in the Histories of Tacitus? That opinion of the Romans as to the relationship of the conquered barbarians towards them, an opinion which in their case was founded on a view of things that had some excuse, the opinion that it was criminal rebellion and insurrection against divine and human laws to offer resistance to them, and that their arms could bring nothing but blessing to the nations, and their chains nothing but honour — it is this opinion that has been formed about us in these days; with great good-nature they expect us to hold it about ourselves, and they assume in advance that we do hold it. I do not take these utterances as evidence of arrogance and scorn; I can understand how such opinions may be held in earnest by people who are very conceited and narrow-minded, and how they can honestly impute the same belief to their opponents, just as I believe that the Romans really thought so; but I onlv raise a doubt as to whether those among us, whose conversion to that way of thinking is for ever impossible, can reckon upon an agreement of any kind whatever.
207. We shall bring the deep contempt of foreigners upon ourselves if in their hearing we accuse each other, 240 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION German races, classes, and persons, of being responsible for the fate that has befallen every one of us, and bitterly and passionately reproach each other. In the first place, all accusations of this kind are for the most part unfair, unjust, and unfounded. The causes that have brought about Germany's latest doom we have already indicated; these causes have for centuries been native to all German races without exception in the same way; the latest events are not the consequences of any particular error of any one race or its government; they have been in preparation long enough, and might just as well have happened to us long ago, if it had depended solely on the causes that lie within our own selves. In this matter the guilt or innocence of all is, one may say, equally great, and a reckoning is no longer possible. When the final result came about in haste, it was found that the separate German States did not even know themselves, their powers, and their true situation; how, then, could any one of them have the presumption to look beyond its own borders and pronounce upon the guilt of others a final judgment based on thorough knowledge?
208. It may be that in every race of the German fatherland the blame falls with more reason on one special class, not because it did not have more insight or greater ability than all the others, for in that respect all were equally to blame, but because it pretended that it had more insight and greater ability, and kept everyone else away from the work of administration in the various States. But, even if a reproach of this kind were well founded, who is to utter it, and why is it necessary to utter and discuss it, just at this moment, more loudly and more bitterly then ever? We see that men of letters are doing this. If they spoke just as they do now in the days when all power and all authority were in the hands of SAME SUBJECT FURTHER CONSIDERED 241 that class, with the tacit approval of the decisive majority of the rest of mankind, who can object if they bring to remembrance what they then said, now that it has been only too well confirmed by experience? We hear also that they bring certain persons by name before the tribunal of the people, persons who formerly stood at the head of affairs, that they set forth their incapacity, their indolence, and their evil will, and clearly show how from such causes such effects were bound to follow. If, when power was still in the hands of the accused persons, and when the evils that were the inevitable result of their administration could have been warded off, these writers saw what they now see and expressed it just as loudly; if they then accused with the same vigour those whom they now find guilty, and if they left no means untried to rescue the fatherland out of their hands, and if no one listened to them; then, they do well to recall to mind the warning that was scornfully rejected.
But, if they have derived their present wisdom only from the course of events, from which all people since then have derived with them exactly the same wisdom, why do they now say what everyone else now knows just as well? Or further, if in those days from motives of gain they flattered, or from motives of fear they remained silent before, that class and those persons on whom, now that they have lost power, they pour the full stream of denunciation; then, let them not forget henceforth, when they are stating the causes of our present miseries, to put with the nobility and the incompetent ministers and generals the writers on politics also, who know only after the event what ought to have been done, just like the common people, and who flatter the holders of power, but with malicious joy deride the fallen!
Or do they blame the errors of the past, which for all 16 242 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION their blame is indestructible, only in order that they may not be repeated in the future; and is it solely their zeal to bring about a thorough improvement in human affairs which makes them so bold in disregarding all considera- tions of prudence and decency? Gladly would we credit them with such goodwill, if only they were entitled by thorough insight and thorough understanding to have goodwill in this matter. It is not so much the particular persons who happen to have been in the highest places, but the connection and complication of the whole, the whole spirit of the age, the errors, the ignorance, shallow- ness, timidity, and the uncertain tread inseparable from these things, it is the whole way of life of the age that has brought these miseries upon us; and so it is far less the persons who have acted than the places; it is everyone's fault; and everyone, even the violent fault-finders themselves, may assume with great probability that if they had been in the same place they would have been forced by their surroundings to much the same end. Let us not dream so much of deliberate wickedness and treachery! Stupidity and indolence are in nearly every case sufficient to explain the things that have happened; and this is a charge of which no one should entirely clear himself without searching self-examination. Especially in a state of affairs where there is in the whole mass a very great measure of indolence, the individual who is to force his way through must possess the power of action in a very high degree. So, even if the mistakes of individuals are ever so sharply singled out, that does not in any way lay bare the cause of the evil; nor is this cause removed by avoiding these mistakes in future. So long as men remain liable to error, they cannot do otherwise than commit errors; and even if they avoid those of their predecessors, in the infinite space of liability to error they will all too SAME SUBJECT FURTHER CONSIDERED 243 easily make new errors of their own. Only a complete regeneration, only the beginning of an entirely new spirit can help us. If they co-operate for the development of this new spirit, we shall be ready and willing to give them credit, not only for goodwill, but also for right and saving understanding.
209. These mutual reproaches, besides being unjust and useless, are extremely unwise, and must degrade us deeply in the eyes of foreigners; we not only make it easy for them to find out all about us, but positively force the knowledge on them in every way. If we never grow weary of telling them how confused and stale all things were with us, and how miserably we were governed, must they not believe that no matter how they behave towards us they are none the less much too good for us, and can never become too bad? Must they not believe that, because of our great clumsiness and helplessness, we are bound to accept with the humblest thanks any and every thing out of the rich store of their art of govern- ment, administration, and legislation that they have already presented to us, or have in contemplation for us in the future? Is there any need for us to confirm their already not unfavourable opinion of themselves and the low opinion they have of us? Do not certain utterances, which would otherwise have to be taken as evidence of bitter scorn — for example, that they have been the first to bring a fatherland to German countries, which previ- ously had none, or that they have abolished that slavish dependence of persons, as such, on other persons, which used to be established by law among us — do not such utterances, when we remember what we ourselves have said, show themselves as a repetition of our own statements and an echo of our own flattering speeches? It is a disgrace, which we Germans share with no other of the 244 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION European peoples whose fate in other respects has been similar to ours, that, as soon as ever foreign arms ruled over us, we behaved as if we had long been awaiting this moment, and sought to do ourselves a good turn quickly, before it was too late, by pouring forth a stream of denun- ciation on our governments and our rulers, whom we had formerly flattered in a way that offended against good taste, and by railing against everything represented by the word " fatherland."
210. How shall those of us who are not guilty ward off the disgrace from our heads and let the guilty ones stand by themselves? There is a means. No more scurrilous denunciations will be printed the moment it is certain that no more will be bought, and as soon as their authors and publishers can no longer reckon on readers tempted to buy them for lack of something better to do, by idle curiosity and love of gossip, or by the malicious joy of seeing those men humiliated who at one time instilled into them the painful feeling of respect. Let everyone who feels the disgrace hand back with fitting contempt a libel that is offered him to read; let him do this, although he believes he is the only one who acts in this way, until it becomes the custom among us for every man of honour to do the same; and then, without any enforcement of restrictions on books, we shall soon be free of this scanda- lous portion of our literature.
211. Finally, we debase ourselves most of all before foreigners when we lay ourselves out to flatter them. In former days certain persons among us made themselves contemptible, ludicrous, and nauseating beyond measure by burning thick incense before our own rulers on every occasion, and by caring for neither sense nor decency, neither taste nor good manners, when they thought there was a chance of delivering a flattering address.
SAME SUBJECT FURTHER CONSIDERED 245 This practice has ceased at this time, and these paeans of praise have been transformed in some cases into words of abuse. However, in order not to get out of practice, as it were, we gave our clouds of incense another direction and turned them towards the place where power now resides. Even the old way — and not only the flattery itself, but also the fact that it was not declined — could not but give pain to every serious-minded German; still, we kept it to ourselves. Are we now going to make foreigners also the witnesses of this base craving of ours, and of the great clumsiness with which we give vent to it; and are we thus going to add to the contemptible exhibi- tion of our baseness the ludicrous demonstration of our lack of adroitness? For, when we set about these things, we are lacking in all the refinement that the foreigner possesses; so as to avoid not being heard, we lay it on thick and exaggerate everything; we begin straight away with deifications and place our heroes among the stars. Another thing is that we give the impression of being driven to these paeans of praise chiefly by fear and terror; but there is nothing more ridiculous than a frightened man who praises the beauty and graciousness of a creature which in fact he takes to be a monster, and which he merely seeks to bribe by his flattery not to swallow him up.
212. Or are these hymns of praise perhaps not flattery, but the genuine expression of reverence and admiration which they are compelled to pay to the great genius who, according to them, now directs the affairs of mankind? How little they know, in this case too, the character of true greatness! In all ages and among all peoples true greatness has remained the same in this respect, that it was not vain; just as, on the other hand, whatever displayed vanity has always been beyond a doubt base 246 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION and petty. True greatness, resting on itself, finds no pleasure in monuments erected by contemporaries, or in being called " The Great," or in the shrieking applause and praises of the mob; rather, it rejects these things with fitting contempt, and awaits first the verdict on itself from its own indwelling judge, and then the public verdict from the judgment of posterity. True greatness has always had this further characteristic: it is filled with awe and reverence in the face of dark and mysterious fate, it is mindful of the ever-rolling wheel of destiny, and never allows itself to be counted great or happy before its end. Hence, those who hymn its praises contradict themselves, and by using words they make their words a lie. If they believed that the object of their pretended veneration was really great, they would humbly admit that he was exalted above their acclamations and lauda- tion, and they would honour him by reverent silence. By making it their business to praise him they show that in fact they take him to be petty and base, and so vain that their hymns of praise can give him pleasure, and that they hope thereby to divert some evil from them- selves, or procure themselves some benefit.
That cry of enthusiasm: " What a sublime genius! What profound wisdom! What a comprehensive plan! " — what after all does it mean when we look at it properly? It means that the genius is so great that we, too, can fully understand it, the wisdom so profound that we, too, can see through it, the plan so comprehensive that we, too, are able to imitate it completely. Hence it means that he who is praised has about the same measure of greatness as he who praises; and yet not quite, for the latter, of course, understands the former fully and is superior to him; hence, he stands above him and, if he only exerted himself thoroughly, could no doubt achieve SAME SUBJECT FURTHER CONSIDERED 247 something even greater. He must have a very good opinion of himself who believes that he can pay court acceptably in this way; and the one who is praised must have a very low opinion of himself if he finds pleasure in such tributes.
213. No! Good, earnest, steady German men and countrymen, far from our spirit be such a lack of under- standing, and far be such defilement from our language, which is formed to express the truth. Let us leave it to foreigners to burst into jubilation and amazement at every new phenomenon, to make a new standard of greatness every decade, to create new gods, and to speak blasphemies in order to please human beings. Let our standard of greatness be the old one: that alone is great which is capable of receiving the ideas which always bring nothing but salvation upon the peoples, and which is inspired by those ideas. But, as regards the living, let us leave the verdict to the judgment of posterity.
FOURTEENTH ADDRESS CONCLUSION 214. In the addresses which I conclude to-day, I have spoken aloud to you first of all, but I have had in view the whole German nation, and my intention has been to gather round me, in the room in which you are bodily present, everyone in the domain of the German language who is able to understand me. If I have succeeded in throwing into any heart which has beaten here in front of me a spark which will continue to glow there and to influence its life, it is not my intention that these hearts should remain apart and lonely; I want to gather to them from over the whole of our common soil men of similar sentiments and resolutions, and to link them together, so that at this central point a single, continuous, and unceasing flame of patriotic disposition may be kindled, which will spread over the whole soil of the fatherland to its utmost boundaries. These addresses have not been meant for the entertainment of indolent ears and eyes in the present age; on the contrary, I want to know once for all, and everyone of like disposition shall know it with me, whether there is anyone besides ourselves whose way of thinking is akin to ours. Every German who still believes himself to be a member of a nation, who thinks highly and nobly of that nation, hopes for it, ventures, endures, and suffers for it, shall at last have the uncertainty of his 248 CONCLUSION 249 belief removed; he shall see clearly whether he is right or is only a fool and a dreamer; from now on he shall either pursue his way with the glad consciousness of certainty, or else firmly and vigorously renounce a fatherland here below, and find in the heavenly one his only consolation. To them, not as individuals in our everyday limited life, but as representatives of the nation, and so through their ears to the whole nation, these addresses make this appeal: — 215. Centuries have come and gone since you were last convoked as you are to-day; in such numbers; in a cause so great, so urgent, and of such concern to all and every- one; so entirely as a nation and as Germans. Never again will the offer come to you' in this way. If you now take no heed and withdraw into yourselves, if you again let these addresses go by you as if they were meant merely to tickle your ears, or if you regard them as something strange and fabulous, then no human being will ever take you into account again. Hearken now at last; reflect now at last. Go not from your place this time at least without first making a firm resolution; and let everyone who hears my voice make this resolution by himself and for himself, just as if he were alone and had to do everything alone. If very many individuals think in this way, there will soon be formed a large community which will be fused into a single close-connected force. But if, on the contrary, each one, leaving himself out, puts his hope in the rest and leaves the matter to others, then there will be no others, and all together will remain as they were before. Make it on the spot, this resolution. Do not say: " Let us rest a little longer, let us sleep and dream a little longer, till the improvement comes of itself." It will never come of itself. He who has once let yesterday go by, which would have been a more convenient time 250 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION for reflection, and yet cannot use his will to-day, will be still less able to do so to-morrow. Every delay makes us all the more indolent, and cradles us still more deeply in the habit of familiarity with our wretched condition. Then, too, the external motives to reflection can never be stronger or more urgent. He who is not aroused by the present situation has beyond a doubt lost all power of feeling. You are convoked to make a firm and final resolu- tion and decision; and in no wise to give a command, an order, an incitement to others, but an incitement to your- selves. You must make a resolution of a kind which each one can carry out only by himself and in his own person. In this matter the leisurely indication of an intention does not suffice, nor the will to exert a will at some future time, nor yet the indolent resolve to submit some time or other to what is proposed, if one should meanwhile of one's self have become a better man. No, you are called upon to make a resolve that will itself be part of your life, a resolve that is itself a deed within you, that endures there and continues to hold sway without being moved or shaken, a resolve that never grows cold, until it has attained its object.
216. Or is, perchance, the root, from which alone such a resolution can spring and have an influence on life, completely destroyed, and has it disappeared? Is your whole being in truth and in fact thinned and reduced to an empty shadow, without sap and blood and power of motion; reduced to a dream in which bright visions are begotten and busily pursue each other, but where the body lies stiff and as it were dead? This age has long been told to its face, and has heard it repeated in every shape and form, that this or something like it is the general opinion. Its spokesmen have believed that people who said this only wanted to slander them, and have regarded CONCLUSION 251 CONCLUSION 251 it as a challenge to themselves to slander in return, supposing that the natural order of things would thereby be restored. Yet there has not been the least trace of any alteration or improvement. But if you have under- stood the indictment, if it has succeeded in making you indignant, then by your acts give the lie to those who think and speak thus of you; show before the eyes of all the world that you are different, and then those men in the eyes of all the world will be convicted of untruth. Perchance it was precisely with the intention of being refuted by you in this way, and because they despaired of any other means of rousing you, that they spoke of you as harshly as they did. If that was the case, how much better disposed towards you they were than those who flatter you, in order that you may be kept in sloth and quietude and all-unheeding thoughtlessness!
However weak and powerless you may be, never before has clear and calm reflection been made so easy for you as at the present time. The thing that really plunged us into confusion as to our position, that caused our thought- lessness, our blind acquiescence in all that happened, was our sweet self-satisfaction; we were satisfied with our- selves and our way of life. Things had gone on all right hitherto and continued to go on just the same. If anyone challenged us to reflection, we triumphantly pointed out to him, in place of any other refutation, our existence and continuance, which came about without any reflection on our part. But things went on all right solely because we had not been put to the test. Since then we have gone through it. Since that time the deceptions, the illusions, the false consolation, by which we all led each other mutually astray, have surely collapsed. The inborn prejudices which, without proceeding from any one place, spread themselves like a natural fog over everyone, and 252 ADDRESSES TO THE GERMAN NATION