and that I do it for the very
reason that no one among them has done it before me; that I would be
silent if any one else had spoken previous to me. This was the first
step toward the goal of a radical amelioration, and some one must take
it. I seemed to be the first vividly to perceive this--accordingly, it
was I who first took it. After this, a second step will be taken, and
thereto every one has now the same right; but, as a matter of fact,
it, in its turn, will be taken by but one individual. One man must
always be the first, and let him be he who can!

Without anxiety regarding this circumstance, let your attention rest
for an instant on the consideration to which we have previously led
you--in how enviable a position Germany and the world would be if the
former had known how to utilize the good fortune of her position and
to recognize her advantage. Let your eyes rest upon what they both
are now, and let your minds be penetrated by the pain and indignation
which, in this reflection, must lay hold upon every noble soul. Then
examine yourselves and see that it is you who can release the age from
the errors of ancient times, and that, if only you will permit it,
your own eyes can be cleared of the mist that covers them; learn, too,
that it has been vouchsafed to you, as to no generation before you, to
undo what has been done and to efface the dishonorable interval from
the annals of the German nation.

Let the various conditions among which you must choose pass before
you. If you drift along in your torpor and your heedlessness, all the
evils of slavery await you--deprivations, humiliations, the scorn and
arrogance of the conqueror; you will be pushed about from pillar to
post, because you have never found your proper niche, until, through
the sacrifice of your nationality and of your language, you slip into
some subordinate place where your nation shall sink its identity. If,
on the other hand, you rouse yourselves, you will find, first of all,
an enduring and honorable existence, and will behold a flourishing
generation which promises to you and to the Germans the most glorious
and lasting memory. Through the instrumentality of this new generation
you will see in spirit the German name exalted to the most glorious
among all nations; you will discern in this nation the regenerator and
restorer of the world.

It depends upon you whether you will be the last of a dishonorable
race, even more surely despised by post