mly convinced that the
earth may be developed and will develop into a paradise and that man
may be developed and will develop into the divinity of that paradise.
Frederick, too, had an inclination for Utopias, and his friend's
notions had a revivifying effect upon him. When accompanying him on
his professional visits, or skating on the little Lake of Hanover, or
conversing with him in his Diogenes tub, hope came back to him; but when
his friend left, hope forsook him.

But Peter Schmidt was no vain Utopist. He had a solid basis for his
ideals, and endeavoured to realise them in practice. Frederick knew no
one so well versed in the natural sciences, political economy, and
medicine; and since he also had very accurate knowledge of the geography
and history of the important countries, his survey of political
conditions was enviably broad. When twenty years old, he had upheld the
pan-Germanic ideal. Now, at thirty, he wrote anonymous editorials, which
received much attention, advocating the coalition of America, Germany and
England, while strongly objecting to the Russian policy in Germany that
originated with Bismarck. The theme that the friends chiefly discussed in
those days may be summed up in the names of Marx and Darwin, or either
of them. In Peter Schmidt a sort of adjustment, or rather fusing, of the
fundamental tendencies of those two great personalities was in process,
though the Christ-Marxian principle of the protection of the weaker gave
way to the natural principle of the protection of the stronger; and this
mirrors the result of the profoundest revolution that has ever taken
place in the history of mankind.

"If, with that tough Friesian skull of yours," Frederick once said to
him, "you succeed for twenty years in propagating the idea of artificial
selection as applied to man, and if the idea of race hygiene, of a
teleologic improvement of human types is sufficiently spread, it will
undoubtedly be fruitful of practical results some day. That is, a fresh,
healthy, vigorous stream of blood will flow through our veins and tend
more and more to counteract the increasing marasmus that is enfeebling
the race."

XXVII

The first week Frederick regularly took his midday meal with the two
physicians in a boarding-house. Towards dusk he always returned to his
Diogenes tub, usually on foot.

The next week he did not visit his friends so often, why, he himself did
not know. He slept badly. Again and again t