e efforts directed towards the abolition of war must not only
be termed foolish, but_ ABSOLUTELY IMMORAL, _and must be stigmatised as
unworthy of the human race. . . ._

"_According to peace treaties, 'the weak nation is to have the same
right to live as the powerful and vigorous nation.' . . . this is
absolutely immoral. . . ._

"_Efforts for peace would, if they attained their goal, not merely lead
to general degeneration, but would have a damaging and unnerving
effect. . . ._

"_Every means must be employed to oppose those who work for
peace. . . ._"

As Bob came to this last passage, he understood why the German soldiers
entered the Peace Convention in Berlin and broke it up by force of
arms. He felt that the Germans lived in a different world from that in
which other nations lived. What to him was a duty, was to them a
crime. What to him was the goal of every Christian and humane man, was
to the German something to be destroyed root and branch. They lived in
different worlds, worshipped a different God. Christianity was not the
same thing to them as to us. We had no common ground on which to meet.
He understood now why the Hague Conference was a failure. Germany had
made it a failure. What other nations longed for, they discarded with
scorn.

They had an utterly different religion. In spite of whatever
militarism there might be in England, the people believed in and
worshipped the Prince of Peace. In Germany Christ was crucified, and
in his place was set up a WAR GOD before which they fell down and which
they adored. All the policy of the Empire was directly controlled by
this War God, and they could not understand being governed by any other
power.

It was all overwhelming, bewildering. This Gospel of the Germans
completely revolutionised his whole intellectual outlook. The idea of
living at peace with such a people was impossible. One might as well
think of living at peace with a mad dog. They had no common morality
to which one could appeal. One could not appeal in the Name of the
Prince of Peace, because to them the Gospel of Peace was immoral.

Then the arrogance of their Creed was revolting. This man Bernhardi,
and Treitschke, and Nietzsche, and the rest of them lived, and acted on
one assumption. They compressed their thoughts into a syllogism:

The people with the highest civilisation and the highest culture should
become dominant throughout the world.

Germany had the highest