{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_17111/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_17111","id":"gutenberg_17111","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17111","summary":null,"tags":["Category: History - European","Category: History - Modern (1750+)","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","National characteristics, German","Nobel Prizes in Literature","World War I","World War, 1914-1918"],"text":"Produced by Thierry Alberto, Henry Craig, Jeannie Howse\nand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttps://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Archive)\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE MEANING\nOF THE WAR\n\nLIFE & MATTER IN CONFLICT\n\nBY HENRI BERGSON\n\n\n\nWITH AN INTRODUCTION BY\nH. WILDON CARR\n\n\n\nLONDON\nT. FISHER UNWIN LTD.\nADELPHI TERRACE\n\n_English translation first published June 1915_\n_Second impression, July 1915_\n_Third impression, August 1915_\n\n(_All rights reserved_)\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                        PAGE\n\nINTRODUCTION                                               9\n\nLIFE AND MATTER AT WAR                                    15\n\nTHE FORCE WHICH WASTES AND THAT WHICH DOES NOT WASTE      41\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n\nThis little volume contains the discourse delivered by M. Bergson as\nPresident of the _Academie des Sciences Morales et Politiques_ at its\nannual public meeting on December 12, 1914. It is the address which\npreceded the announcement of the prizes and awards bestowed by the\nAcademy. It is now issued in book form with the consent of the author,\nand his full appreciation of the object, to give it the widest\ncirculation. Although it is brief, it is a message addressed directly\nto the heart of our people in the crisis of war. To it is added a\nshort article on the same theme, contributed to the _Bulletin des\nArmees de la Republique_, November 4, 1914.\n\nIt has been said that war, with all its terrible evils, is the\noccasion of at least one good which humanity values as above price: it\ninspires great poetry. On the other hand, it seems to crush\nphilosophy. Many may think that in this message it is poetry to which\nM. Bergson is giving expression. It is, however, from the depth of his\nphilosophy that the inspiration is drawn. The full significance of the\ndoctrines he has been teaching, and their whole moral and political\nbearing, are brought into clear light, focussed, as it were, on the\nactual present struggle. Yet is there no word that breathes hatred to\nany person or to any race. It is by the triumph of a spiritual\nprinciple that philosophy may hope to free humanity from the\noppression of a materialist doctrine.\n\nThe opposing principle has had, and still has, philosophers to defend\nit, and they belong to no particular nation or race. One of its most\nbrilliant and influential exponents was a Frenchman, the diplomatist,\nComte Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (1816-1882). A brief word on this\nremarkable man may help the reader to understand the mention of his\nname on page 30. His _Essai sur l'inegalite des races humaines_ (1855)\nwas the first of a series of writings to affirm, on ethnological\ngrounds, the superiority of the Aryan race, and its right and destiny\nby reason of that superiority to rule all other races as bondsmen. He\nwas the friend of Wagner, and also of Nietzsche. Madame\nFoerster-Nietzsche in her biography of her brother has spoken of the\nalmost reverent regard which he entertained for Gobineau, and it may\nbe that from him Nietzsche derived the idea which he developed into\nhis doctrine of the non-morality of the superman.\n\nWere the discourse of M. Bergson no more than the utterance of a\nphilosopher stirred by deep patriotic feeling to uphold his country's\ncause and denounce his country's foes, then, however eloquent its\nappeal, it would have no significance or value beyond its present\npower to inspire courage in the hearts of his comrades. And it would\nnot differ from equally earnest appeals which other philosophers have\naddressed to the world on behalf of their fellow-countrymen. It has a\nmuch deeper meaning. It is no mere indictment of modern Germany's\nrulers or people. It goes to the very heart of the problem of the\nfuture of humanity. Shall the splendid material progress which has\nmarked the scientific achievement of the last century be the forging\nof a sword to destroy the freedom which life has won with it from\nmatter?\n\nAs these words are written the conflict is raging, and the decision\nseems still far off. Death is striking down the young in all the\nnations, and among them many on whom our highest hopes were founded.\n\"But whatever be the price of victory,\" so writes M. Bergson to me,\n\"it will not have been too dearly bought if humanity is finally\ndelivered from the nightmare which weighs on it.\"\n\n  H. WILDON CARR\n\n  LONDON, _May 1915_\n\n\n\n\nLIFE AND MATTER AT WAR\n\n\n\n\nLIFE AND MATTER AT WAR\n\n\n\"Comprendre et ne pas s'indigner\": this has been said to be the last\nword of philosophy. I believe none of it; and, had I to choose, I\nshould much prefer, when in presence of crime, to give my indignation\nrein and not to understand. Happily, the choice has not to be made. On\nthe contrary, there are forms of anger which, by a thorough\ncomprehension of their objects, derive the force to sustain and renew\ntheir vigour. Our anger is of that kind. We have only to detach the\ninner meaning of this war, and our horror for those who made it will\nbe increased. Moreover, nothing is easier. A little history, and a\nlittle philosophy, will suffice.\n\nFor a long period Germany devoted herself to poetry, to art, to\nmetaphysic. She was made, so she said, for thought and imagination;\n\"she had no feeling for the reality of things.\" It is true that her\nadministration had defects, that she was divided into rival states,\nthat anarchy at certain times seemed beyond remedy. Nevertheless, an\nattentive study would have revealed, beneath this disorder, the normal\nprocess of life, which is always too rank at the first and later on\nprunes away its excess, makes its choice and adopts a lasting form.\nFrom her municipal activity there would have issued at length a good\nadministration which would have assured order without suppressing\nliberty. From the closer union of the confederated states that unity\nin diversity, which is the distinguishing mark of organized beings,\nwould have arisen. But time was needed for that, as it always is\nneeded by life, in order that its possibilities may be realized.\n\nNow, while Germany was thus working out the task of her organic\nself-development there was within her, or rather by her side, a people\nwith whom every process tended to take a mechanical form.\nArtificiality marked the creation of Prussia; for she was formed by\nclumsily sewing together, edge to edge, provinces either acquired or\nconquered. Her administration was mechanical; it did its work with the\nregularity of a well-appointed machine. Not less mechanical--extreme\nboth in precision and in power--was the army, on which the attention\nof the Hohenzollerns was concentrated. Whether it was that the people\nhad been drilled for centuries to mechanical obedience; or that an\nelemental instinct for conquest and plunder, absorbing to itself the\nlife of the nation, had simplified its aims and reduced them to\nmaterialism; or that the Prussian character was originally so made--it\nis certain that the idea of Prussia always evoked a vision of\nrudeness, of rigidity, of automatism, as if everything within her went\nby clockwork, from the gesture of her kings to the step of her\nsoldiers.\n\nA day came when Germany had to choose between a rigid and ready-made\nsystem of unification, mechanically superposed from without, and the\nunity which comes from within by a natural effort of life. At the same\ntime the choice was offered her between an administrative mechanism,\ninto which she would merely have to fit herself--a complete order,\ndoubtless, but poverty-stricken, like everything else that is\nartificial--and that richer and more flexible order which the wills of\nmen, when freely associated, evolve of themselves. How would she\nchoose?\n\nThere was a man on the spot in whom the methods of Prussia were\nincarnate--a genius, I admit, but an evil genius; for he was devoid of\nscruple, devoid of faith, devoid of pity, and devoid of soul. He had\njust removed the only obstacle which could spoil his plan; he had got\nrid of Austria. He said to himself: \"We are going to make Germany\ntake over, along with Prussian centralization and discipline, all our\nambitions and all our appetites. If she hesitates, if the confederate\npeoples do not arrive of their own accord at this common resolution, I\nknow how to compel them; I will cause a breath of hatred to pass over\nthem, all alike. I will launch them against a common enemy, an enemy\nwe have hood-winked and waylaid, and whom we shall try to catch\nunarmed. Then when the hour of triumph shall sound, I will rise up;\nfrom Germany, in her intoxication, I will snatch a covenant, which,\nlike that of Faust with Mephistopheles, she has signed with her blood,\nand by which she also, like Faust, has traded her soul away for the\ngood things of earth.\"\n\nHe did as he had said. The covenant was made. But, to ensure that it\nwould never be broken, Germany must be made to feel, for ever and\never, the necessity of the armour in which she was imprisoned.\nBismarck took his measures accordingly. Among the confidences which\nfell from his lips and were gathered up by his intimates is this\nrevealing word: \"We took nothing from Austria after Sadowa because we\nwanted to be able one day to be reconciled with her.\" So, then, in\ntaking Alsace and a part of Lorraine, his idea was that no\nreconciliation with the French would be possible. He intended that the\nGerman people should believe itself in permanent danger of war, that\nthe new Empire should remain armed to the teeth, and that Germany,\ninstead of dissolving Prussian militarism into her own life, should\nreinforce it by militarizing herself.\n\nShe reinforced it; and day by day the machine grew in complexity and\npower. But in the process it yielded automatically a result very\ndifferent from that which its constructors had foreseen. It is the\nstory of the witch who, by a magic incantation, had won the consent of\nher broomstick to go to the river and fill her buckets; having no\nformula ready to check the work, she watched her cave fill with water\nuntil she was drowned.\n\nThe Prussian army had been organized, brought to perfection, tended\nwith love by the Kings of Prussia, in order that it might serve their\nlust of conquest. To take possession of neighbours' territory was then\nthe sole aim; territory was almost the whole of the national wealth.\nBut with the nineteenth century there was a new departure. The idea\npeculiar to that century of diverting science to the satisfaction of\nmen's material wants evoked a development of industry, and\nconsequently of commerce, so extraordinary that the old conception of\nwealth was completely overthrown. Not more than fifty years were\nneeded to bring about this transformation. On the morrow of the war of\n1870 a nation expressly made for appropriating the good things of this\nworld had no alternative but to become industrial and commercial. Not\non that account, however, would she change the essential principle of\nher action. On the contrary, she had but to utilize her habits of\ndiscipline, method, tenacity, minute care, precise information--and,\nwe may add, of impertinence and spying--to which she owed the growth\nof her military power. She would thus equip herself with industry and\ncommerce not less formidable than her army, and able to march, on\ntheir part also, in military order.\n\nFrom that time onwards these two were seen going forward together,\nadvancing at an even pace and reciprocally supporting each\nother--industry, which had answered the appeal of the spirit of\nconquest, on one side; on the other, the army, in which that spirit\nwas incarnate, with the navy, which had just been added to the forces\nof the army. Industry was free to develop in all directions; but, from\nthe first, war was the end in view. In enormous factories, such as the\nworld had never seen, tens of thousands of workmen toiled in casting\ngreat guns, while by their side, in workshops and laboratories, every\ninvention which the disinterested genius of neighbouring peoples had\nbeen able to achieve was immediately captured, bent from its intended\nuse, and converted into an engine of war. Reciprocally, the army and\nnavy which owed their growth to the increasing wealth of the nation,\nrepaid the debt by placing their services at the disposal of this\nwealth: they undertook to open roads for commerce and outlets for\nindustry. But through this very combination the movement imposed on\nPrussia by her kings, and on Germany by Prussia, was bound to swerve\nfrom its course, whilst gathering speed and flinging itself forward.\nSooner or later it was bound to escape from all control and become a\nplunge into the abyss.\n\nFor, even though the spirit of conquest knows no limit in itself, it\nmust limit its ambitions as long as the question is simply that of\nseizing a neighbour's territory. To constitute their kingdom, kings of\nPrussia had been obliged to undertake a long series of wars. Whether\nthe name of the spoiler be Frederick or William, not more than one or\ntwo provinces can be annexed at a time: to take more is to weaken\noneself. But suppose that the same insatiable thirst for conquest\nenters into the new form of wealth--what follows? Boundless ambition,\nwhich till then had spread out the coming of its gains over indefinite\ntime, since each one of them would be worth only a definite portion of\nspace, will now leap all at once to an object boundless as itself.\nRights will be set up on every point of the globe where raw material\nfor industry, refitting stations for ships, concessions for\ncapitalists, or outlets for production are seen to exist. In fact, the\npolicy which had served Prussia so well passed at a bound from the\nmost calculating prudence to the wildest temerity. Bismarck, whose\ncommon-sense put some restraint on the logic of his principles, was\nstill averse to colonial enterprises; he said that all the affairs of\nthe East were not worth the bones of one Pomeranian grenadier. But\nGermany, retaining Bismarck's former impulse, went straight on and\nrushed forward along the lines of least resistance to east and west:\non the one side lay the route to the Orient, on the other the empire\nof the sea. But in so doing she virtually declared war on the nations\nwhich Bismarck had managed to keep allied or friendly. Her ambition\nlooked forward to the domination of the world.\n\nMoreover, there was no moral restraint which could keep this ambition\nunder control. Intoxicated by victory, by the prestige which victory\nhad given her, and of which her commerce, her industry, her science\neven, had reaped the benefit, Germany plunged into a material\nprosperity such as she had never known, such as she would never have\ndared to dream of. She told herself that if force had wrought this\nmiracle, if force had given her riches and honour, it was because\nforce had within it a hidden virtue, mysterious--nay, divine. Yes,\nbrute force with its train of trickery and lies, when it comes with\npowers of attack sufficient for the conquest of the world, must needs\nbe in direct line from heaven and a revelation of the will of God on\nearth. The people to whom this power of attack had come were the\nelect, a chosen race by whose side the others are races of bondmen. To\nsuch a race nothing is forbidden that may help in establishing its\ndominion. Let none speak to it of inviolable right! Right is what is\nwritten in a treaty; a treaty is what registers the will of a\nconqueror--that is, the direction of his force for the time being:\nforce, then, and right are the same thing; and if force is pleased to\ntake a new direction, the old right becomes ancient history and the\ntreaty, which backed it with a solemn undertaking, no more than a\nscrap of paper. Thus Germany, struck with wonder in presence of her\nvictories, of the brute force which had been their means, of the\nmaterial prosperity which was the outcome, translated her amazement\ninto an idea. And see how, at the call of this idea, a thousand\nthoughts, as if awaked from slumber, and shaking off the dust of\nlibraries, came rushing in from every side--thoughts which Germany had\nsuffered to sleep among her poets and philosophers, every one which\ncould lend a seductive or striking form to a conviction already made!\nHenceforth German imperialism had a theory of its own. Taught in\nschools and universities, it easily moulded to itself a nation already\nbroken-in to passive obedience and having no loftier ideal wherewith\nto oppose the official doctrine. Many persons have explained the\naberrations of German policy as due to that theory. For my part, I see\nin it nothing more than a philosophy doomed to translate into ideas\nwhat was, in its essence, insatiable ambition and will perverted by\npride. The doctrine is an effect rather than a cause; and should the\nday come when Germany, conscious of her moral humiliation, shall say,\nto excuse herself, that she had trusted herself too much to certain\ntheories, that an error of judgment is not a crime, it will then be\nnecessary to remind her that her philosophy was simply a translation\ninto intellectual terms of her brutality, her appetites, and her\nvices. So, too, in most cases, doctrines are the means by which\nnations and individuals seek to explain what they are and what they\ndo. Germany, having finally become a predatory nation, invokes Hegel\nas witness; just as a Germany enamoured of moral beauty would have\ndeclared herself faithful to Kant, just as a sentimental Germany would\nhave found her tutelary genius in Jacobi or Schopenhauer. Had she\nleaned in any other direction and been unable to find at home the\nphilosophy she needed, she would have procured it from abroad. Thus\nwhen she wished to convince herself that predestined races exist, she\ntook from France, that she might hoist him into celebrity, a writer\nwhom we have not read--Gobineau.\n\nNone the less is it true that perverse ambition, once erected into\ntheory, feels more at ease in working itself out to the end; a part of\nthe responsibility will then be thrown upon logic. If the German race\nis the elect, it will be the only race which has an unconditional\nright to live; the others will be tolerated races, and this toleration\nwill be precisely what is called \"the state of peace.\" Let war come;\nthe annihilation of the enemy will be the end Germany has to pursue.\nShe will not strike at combatants only; she will massacre women,\nchildren, old men; she will pillage and burn; the ideal will be to\ndestroy towns, villages, the whole population. Such is the conclusion\nof the theory. Now we come to its aim and true principle.\n\nAs long as war was no more than a means to the settlement of a dispute\nbetween two nations, the conflict was localized to the two armies\ninvolved. More and more of useless violence was eliminated; innocent\npopulations were kept outside the quarrel. Thus little by little a\ncode of war was drawn up. From the first, however, the Prussian army,\norganized as it was for conquest, did not take kindly to this law. But\nfrom the time when Prussian militarism, now turned into German\nmilitarism, had become one with industrialism, it was the enemy's\nindustry, his commerce, the sources of his wealth, his wealth itself,\nas well as his military power, which war must now make the end in\nview. His factories must be destroyed that his competition may be\nsuppressed. Moreover, that he may be impoverished once and for all and\nthe aggressor enriched, his towns must be put to ransom, pillaged, and\nburned. Above all must the war be short, not only in order that the\neconomic life of Germany might not suffer too much, but further, and\nchiefly, because her military power lacked that consciousness of a\nright superior to force by which she could sustain and recuperate her\nenergies. Her moral force, being only the pride which comes from\nmaterial force, would be exposed to the same vicissitudes as this\nlatter: in proportion as the one was being expended the other would be\nused up. Time for moral force to become used up must not be given. The\nmachine must deliver its blow all at once. And this it could do by\nterrorizing the population, and so paralysing the nation. To achieve\nthat end, no scruple must be suffered to embarrass the play of its\nwheels. Hence a system of atrocities prepared in advance--a system as\nsagaciously put together as the machine itself.\n\nSuch is the explanation of the spectacle before us. \"Scientific\nbarbarism,\" \"systematic barbarism,\" are phrases we have heard. Yes,\nbarbarism reinforced by the capture of civilization. Throughout the\ncourse of the history we have been following there is, as it were, the\ncontinuous clang of militarism and industrialism, of machinery and\nmechanism, of debased moral materialism.\n\nMany years hence, when the reaction of the past shall have left only\nthe grand outline in view, this perhaps is how a philosopher will\nspeak of it. He will say that the idea, peculiar to the nineteenth\ncentury, of employing science in the satisfaction of our material\nwants had given a wholly unforeseen extension to the mechanical arts\nand had equipped man in less than fifty years with more tools than he\nhad made during the thousands of years he had lived on the earth. Each\nnew machine being for man a new organ--an artificial organ which\nmerely prolongs the natural organs--his body became suddenly and\nprodigiously increased in size, without his soul being able at the\nsame time to dilate to the dimensions of his new body. From this\ndisproportion there issued the problems, moral, social, international,\nwhich most of the nations endeavoured to solve by filling up the\nsoulless void in the body politic by creating more liberty, more\nfraternity, more justice than the world had ever seen. Now, while\nmankind laboured at this task of spiritualization, inferior powers--I\nwas going to say infernal powers--plotted an inverse experience for\nmankind. What would happen if the mechanical forces, which science had\nbrought to a state of readiness for the service of man, should\nthemselves take possession of man in order to make his nature material\nas their own? What kind of a world would it be if this mechanism\nshould seize the human race entire, and if the peoples, instead of\nraising themselves to a richer and more harmonious diversity, as\n_persons_ may do, were to fall into the uniformity of _things_? What\nkind of a society would that be which should mechanically obey a word\nof command mechanically transmitted; which should rule its science and\nits conscience in accordance therewith; and which should lose, along\nwith the sense of justice, the power to discern between truth and\nfalsehood? What would mankind be when brute force should hold the\nplace of moral force? What new barbarism, this time final, would arise\nfrom these conditions to stifle feeling, ideas, and the whole\ncivilization of which the old barbarism contained the germ? What would\nhappen, in short, if the moral effort of humanity should turn in its\ntracks at the moment of attaining its goal, and if some diabolical\ncontrivance should cause it to produce the mechanization of spirit\ninstead of the spiritualization of matter? There was a people\npredestined to try the experiment. Prussia had been militarized by her\nkings; Germany had been militarized by Prussia; a powerful nation was\non the spot marching forward in mechanical order. Administration and\nmilitary mechanism were only waiting to make alliance with industrial\nmechanism. The combination once made, a formidable machine would come\ninto existence. A touch upon the starting-gear and the other nations\nwould be dragged in the wake of Germany, subjects to the same\nmovement, prisoners of the same mechanism. Such would be the meaning\nof the war on the day when Germany should decide upon its\ndeclaration.\n\nShe decided, he will continue, but the result was very different from\nwhat had been predicted. For the moral forces, which were to submit to\nthe forces of matter by their side, suddenly revealed themselves as\ncreators of material force. A simple idea, the heroic conception which\na small people had formed of its honour, enabled it to make head\nagainst a powerful empire. At the cry of outraged justice we saw,\nmoreover, in a nation which till then had trusted in its fleet, one\nmillion, two millions of soldiers suddenly rise from the earth. A yet\ngreater miracle: in a nation thought to be mortally divided against\nitself all became brothers in the space of a day. From that moment the\nissue of the conflict was not open to doubt. On the one side, there\nwas force spread out on the surface; on the other, there was force in\nthe depths. On one side, mechanism, the manufactured article which\ncannot repair its own injuries; on the other, life, the power of\ncreation which makes and remakes itself at every instant. On one side,\nthat which uses itself up; on the other, that which does not use\nitself up.\n\nIndeed, our philosopher will conclude, the machine did use itself up.\nFor a long time it resisted; then it bent; then it broke. Alas! it had\ncrushed under it a multitude of our children; and over the fate of\nthis young life, which was so naturally and purely heroic, our tears\nwill continue to fall. An implacable law decrees that spirit must\nencounter the resistance of matter, that life cannot advance without\nbruising that which lives, and that great moral results are purchased\nby much blood and by many tears. But this time the sacrifice was to be\nrich in fruit as it had been rich in beauty. That the powers of death\nmight be matched against life in one supreme combat, destiny had\ngathered them all at a single point. And behold how death was\nconquered; how humanity was saved by material suffering from the moral\ndownfall which would have been its end; while the peoples, joyful in\ntheir desolation, raised on high the song of deliverance from the\ndepths of ruin and of grief!\n\n\n\n\nTHE FORCE WHICH WASTES AND THAT WHICH DOES NOT WASTE\n\n\n\n\nTHE FORCE WHICH WASTES AND THAT WHICH DOES NOT WASTE\n\n\nThe issue of the struggle is not doubtful. Germany will succumb.\nMaterial force and moral force, all which is sustaining her, will end\nby failing her, because she is living on provision she has\naccumulated, is spending it, and has no way of renewing it.\n\nOf her material resources all is known. She has money, but her credit\nis falling, and one does not see where she is to borrow. She needs\nnitrates for her explosives, fuel for her motors, bread for her\nsixty-five million inhabitants, for all of which she has made\nprovision; but the day will come when her granaries will be empty and\nher tanks dry. How will she refill them? War, as she practises it,\nmakes frightful havoc of her warriors. Yet here again replenishment is\nimpossible, no aid will come from without, because an enterprise\nlaunched with the object of imposing German rule, German \"culture,\"\nGerman products, only interests and ever will only interest what is\nalready German. Such is the situation of Germany confronted by a\nFrance who is keeping her credit intact and her ports open, who is\nprocuring herself victual and munitions as she pleases, who reinforces\nher armies with all that her allies bring to her support, and who can\ncount on the ever more active sympathy of the civilized world because\nher cause is that of humanity itself.\n\nStill this is only material force, the force which is seen. What can\nwe say of moral force, the force which is not seen, which yet matters\nmost since it can in a certain degree make good what is lacking of\nthe other, and without which the other is worthless?\n\nThe moral energy of nations, as of individuals, is only sustained by\nan ideal higher than themselves, and stronger than themselves, to\nwhich they cling firmly when they feel their courage waver. Where is\nthe ideal of the Germany of to-day? The time when her philosophers\nproclaimed the inviolability of right, the eminent dignity of the\nperson, the duty of mutual respect among nations, is no more. Germany,\nmilitarized by Prussia, has cast aside those noble ideas, ideas she\nreceived for the most part from the France of the eighteenth century\nand of the Revolution. She has made for herself a new soul, or rather\nshe has meekly accepted the soul Bismarck has given her. To him has\nbeen attributed the famous maxim \"Might is right.\" But in truth\nBismarck never pronounced it, for he had well guarded himself against\na distinction of right from might. Right was simply in his view what\nis willed by the strongest, what is consigned by the conqueror in the\nlaw he imposes on the conquered. In that is summed up his whole\nmorality. Germany to-day knows no other. She, too, worships brute\nforce. And because she believes herself the strongest, she is\naltogether absorbed in self-adoration. Her energy comes from her\npride. Her moral force is only the confidence which her material force\ninspires in her. And this means that in this respect she is living on\nreserves without means of replenishment. Even before England had\ncommenced to blockade her coasts she had blockaded herself morally, in\nisolating herself from every ideal capable of giving her new life.\n\nSo she will see her forces waste and her courage at the same time. But\nthe energy of our soldiers is drawn from something which does not\nwaste, from an ideal of justice and freedom. Time has no hold on us.\nTo the force which feeds only on its own brutality we are opposing\nthat which seeks outside and above itself a principle of life and\nrenovation. Whilst the one is gradually spending itself, the other is\ncontinually remaking itself. The one is already wavering, the other\nabides unshaken. Have no fear, our force will slay theirs.\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPRINTED AT\nTHE BALLANTYNE PRESS\nLONDON & EDINBURGH","title":"The Meaning of the War: Life & Matter in Conflict","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":5080}