ariety
of raiment. It is a strange contradiction in German life that while
they are as a people governed minutely and in detail, forbidden
personal freedom along certain lines to which we should find it hard
to submit, they are freer morally, freer in their literature, their
art, their music, their social life, and in their unself-conscious
expression of them than other people. There is a curious combination
of legal and governmental slavery, and of spiritual and intellectual
freedom; of innumerable restrictions, and great liberty of personal
enjoyment, and that enjoyment of the most naif kind. They seem to have
done less to destroy life's palate with the condiments of
civilization, and therefore, still find plain things savorous.

I am not sure that the ecumenical sophistication, known as
world-etiquette, marks a very high degree of knowledge or usefulness
anywhere. To know which hat goes with which boots, and what collar and
tie with what coat and waistcoat, and what costume is appropriate at
10 A. M., and what at 10 P. M., and to know the names of the head-waiters
of the principal restaurants, are minor matters. These are the
conveniences of the gentleman, but the characteristic burdens of the
ass. Such a mental equipment is not the stuff of which soldiers,
sailors, statesmen, explorers, or governors are made.

We must not overrate the value of this feminine worldliness in judging
the Germans. This effeminate categorical imperative of etiquette has
not influenced them greatly as yet. But on the other hand, one must
claim for the amenities of life that they have their value, that they
are, after all, the external decorations of an inward discipline. It
is not necessarily a fine disdain of material things, but rather a
keen sense of moral and physical efficiency, which pays due heed to
wherewithal ye shall be clothed, at any rate outside of Palestine.
Those who dream and discuss may wear anything or nothing. It mattered
not what Socrates wore. But men of action must wear the easy armor
that fits them best for their particular task. Men who toil either at
their pleasure or at their work must change their raiment, if only for
the sake of rest and health. Now that government is in the hands of
the vociferators rather than the meditaters, even politicians must
look to their costumes, merely out of regard to cleanliness. Evening
clothes with a knitted tie dribbling down the shirt front; a frock-coat
as a frame for a color