te her strength and enjoy the good things already won.
Germany will fight with far other purpose and one that must inspire a
far more vigorous effort; she will fight, not merely to keep what she
already has, but to escape from an intolerable position of inferiority
she knows to be unmerited and forced not by the moral or intellectual
superiority of her adversary or due to her own short comings, but
maintained by reason of that adversary's geographical position and
early seizure of the various points of advantage.
Her effort will be not merely military, it will be an intellectual
assertion, a fight in very truth for that larger freedom, that
citizenship of the world England is studious to "engross and
accumulate" for herself alone and to deny to all others. Thus, while
English attack at the best will be actuated by no loftier feeling
than that of a man who, dwelling in a very comfortable house with an
agreeable prospect resists an encroachment on his outlook from the
building operations of his less well lodged neighbour, Germany will be
fighting not only to get out of doors into the open air and sunshine,
but to build a loftier and larger dwelling, fit tenement for a
numerous and growing offspring.
Whatever the structure Germany seeks to erect England objects to the
plan and hangs out her war sign "Ancient Lights."
Who can doubt that the greater patriotism and stronger purpose must
inspire the man who fights for light, air, and freedom, the right to
walk abroad, to learn, to teach, aye, and to inspire others, rather
than him whose chief concern it is to see that no one but himself
enjoys these opportunities. The means, moreover, that each combatant
will bring to the conflict are, in the end, on the side of Germany.
Much the same disproportion of resources exists as lay between Rome
and Carthage.
England relies on money. Germany on men. And just as Roman men beat
Carthaginian mercenaries, so must German manhood, in the end, triumph
over British finance. Just as Carthage in the hours of final shock,
placing her gold where Romans put their gods, and never with a soul
above her ships, fell before the people of United Italy, so shall
the mightier Carthage of the North Seas, in spite of trade, shipping,
colonies, the power of the purse and the hired valour of the foreign
(Irish, Indian, African), go down before the men of United Germany.
But if the military triumph of Germany seems thus likely, the ultimate
assura
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