oes among us civilians because it _protects_ us."

Kirtley concluded that this accounted for the large number of
detached young men in Germany--in the army and out of it--who
appeared to be so entirely footloose, ready for any mission or task
in any part of the globe. As the two sat there talking about the
question of lovelessness in these relations, Herr Bucher strolled up
from his flower beds and joined them in his Tyrolean jacket of the
chase and big army boots. Gard said,

"We were speaking of affection, Herr Bucher. Why do the Germans have
the ideal of hate when other races are holding up the ideal of
love?"

"Because it is good to hate!" exclaimed the host with rugged
forcefulness as he squatted in a seat. "To hate is strong, manly. It
makes the blood flow. It makes one alert. It is necessary for
keeping up the fighting instinct. To love is a feebleness. It
enervates. You see all the nations that talk of love as the keynote
of life are weak, degenerate. Germany is the most powerful nation in
the world because she hates. When you hate, you eat well, sleep
well, work well, fight well. It is best for the health. When you
love, it is like a sickness and disorganizes and debilitates."

"How do you reconcile that with Christ and His mission of love?"
pursued Gard.

"There is nothing to reconcile. We simply do not admit all that. It
is not practical. Christ was not practical. He had no family. He
made no home. He never even built a house. He did not found a State.
He let the Romans run over Him. How can one live in a cold northern
climate without a house, a nation and an army to protect him? No, it
is not at all practical. Even Christ could not defend Himself. He
was crucified without any resistance, any struggle. To hate is to
struggle and that is the mainspring of action. So one must prepare
himself to struggle successfully. To hate, to cause to be feared,
are the proper motives for life. They _are_ life. Fear is a stronger
and far more universal human motive than love. Therefore we Germans
want to be feared rather than to be loved. So we hate because it
engenders fear in others. To love is already half a surrender and
ends logically in death. With Christ the real victory, the real
heaven aspired to, was in death, not in life."

The Herr had faithfully read Rudi's contemporary German military
philosophers.

Truly this was too strange a race, Kirtley felt, to admit of any
levels of genuine, unreserved associat