FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  
he will deserve it. _Die Weltgeschichte ist das Weltgericht_ (World history is world judgment). History is not a conflict between abstractions, between truth and error, between higher and lower principles, between conflicting ideals; it is, above all, the tragic conflict between higher and lower races. War is necessary and war is beneficial. War is not only the instrument, it is also the criterion, of progress. "Might is Right" ceases to be an immoral principle. "Might is Right" is the ultimate formula of the most sublime morality, for Might is but the Right of the strong to establish the rule of the noble over the ignoble elements of humanity. CHAPTER XI A SLUMP IN GERMAN THEOLOGY I. In the universal readjustment--or, to use the favourite expression of Nietzsche, in the "transvaluation"--of political and spiritual values which must follow the war, we may confidently expect a general slump in all German values. There will be a slump in German education and in German erudition, in German music and in German watering-places. There will be a slump in that "exclusive morality" for which Lord Haldane could not find an equivalent in the English language, and for which, in his famous Montreal address, he could only find an equivalent in the German word _Sittlichkeit_. But, most important of all, there will be a lamentable slump in the most highly prized of all German values--German theology. Germany may still retain a monopoly of toys; Germany may still continue to supply Princes to the vacant thrones of Europe; but it is eminently probable that God Almighty will cease to be made in the Vaterland. II. No one who has not been brought up in a Scottish Presbyterian University atmosphere realizes the mystical prestige hitherto enjoyed by German theology. The education of a Scottish divine was thought incomplete, a graduate in divinity, however brilliant and devout, could not get an important charge, if he had not received the hallmark and consecration of a German theological faculty. And what was true of German Universities was equally true of German theological books. Publishers like Messrs. Clark, of Edinburgh, and Messrs. Williams and Norgate, of London, made considerable fortunes merely from their translations of German works of divinity. The prejudice in favour of German Universities and against French Universities goes back to the early days of the Reformation. Already in "Hamlet" we find the s
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136  
137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
German
 

values

 

Universities

 

Messrs

 
Scottish
 

education

 
theological
 

morality

 
equivalent
 
important

conflict

 

theology

 

Germany

 

higher

 

divinity

 
prestige
 
mystical
 

brought

 

University

 
atmosphere

realizes

 

Presbyterian

 

thrones

 

Europe

 

eminently

 

vacant

 

Princes

 

continue

 
supply
 
probable

hitherto

 
Almighty
 

Vaterland

 

hallmark

 

translations

 

fortunes

 

Williams

 
Norgate
 

London

 
considerable

prejudice

 

favour

 

Reformation

 
Already
 
Hamlet
 

French

 

Edinburgh

 

brilliant

 

devout

 

charge