wild beasts, burned, crucified, and
then, when they were well out of the way, crowned and held up to
humanity as the saviors of the race. We will have none of them when
authority, faith, truth, courage, show us our distorted images in the
mirror of their lives. Crucify him, crucify him! has always been the
cry when such a one asserts his moral kingship, or his sonship to God,
or his audacious intention to live his own life; and in less tragic
fashion, but none the less along the same lines, the world tends to
pick at, and to fray the moral garments of, its leaders still to-day.
When such a one succeeds through sheer simplicity, then that last
feeble epitaph of mediocrity is applied to him: "He is lucky," because
so few people realize that "luck," is merely not to be dependent upon
luck.

It is apparent from the quotations I have given, and many more of the
same tenor are at our disposal, that the personality we are studying
has a very definite image of his place in the world, of the duties he
is called upon to perform, of his rights according to his own
conception of his authority and responsibilities, and of his
intentions.

It is equally apparent that he looks upon history in quite another way
than that usually accepted by the modern scientific historian. Taine
and Green may explain everything, even kings and emperors, by the
forces of climate, environment, and the slow-heaving influence of the
people. This school of historians will tell you how Charlemagne, and
Luther, and Cromwell, and Napoleon are to be accounted for by purely
material explanations.

The German Emperor apparently believes that the history of the world
and the development of mankind are due to a series of mighty factors,
mysteriously endowed from on high and bearing the names of men, and
not infrequently the names of emperors and kings. He is continually
recalling his ancestors, the Great Elector, Frederick the Great, and
William I, his grandfather. These men made Prussia and Prussia made
the German Empire, he declares. To the Brandenburg Parliament he says:
"It is the great merit of my ancestors that they have always stood
aloof from and above all parties, and that they have always succeeded
in making political parties combine for the welfare of the whole
people."

Due to a quality in the German character that need not be discussed
here, it is true that they have been led, and driven, and welded by
powerful individuals. No Magna Charta, no Cr