absorbed by their
superiors. Since God has thus ordained, it is unnecessary to state that
the grand world-leader is Germany."

Argensola here interrupted to observe that German pride believed itself
championed not only by God but by science, too.

"I know that," interposed the Russian without letting him
finish--"generalization, inequality, selection, the struggle for life,
and all that. . . . The Germans, so conceited about their special worth,
erect upon distant ground their intellectual monuments, borrowing of the
foreigner their foundation material whenever they undertake a new line
of work. A Frenchman and an Englishman, Gobineau and Chamberlain, have
given them the arguments with which to defend the superiority of their
race. With the rubbish left over from Darwin and Spencer, their
old Haeckel has built up his doctrine of 'Monism' which, applied to
politics, scientifically consecrates Prussian pride and recognizes its
right to rule the world by force."

"No, a thousand times no!" he exclaimed after a brief silence. "The
struggle for existence with its procession of cruelties may be
true among the lower species, but it should not be true among human
creatures. We are rational beings and ought to free ourselves from the
fatality of environment, moulding it to our convenience. The animal does
not know law, justice or compassion; he lives enslaved in the obscurity
of his instincts. We think, and thought signifies liberty. Force does
not necessarily have to be cruel; it is strongest when it does not take
advantage of its power, and is kindly. All have a right to the life into
which they are born, and since among individuals there exist the haughty
and the humble, the mighty and the weak, so should exist nations, large
and small, old and young. The end of our existence is not combat nor
killing in order that others may afterwards kill us, and, perhaps, be
killed themselves. Civilized peoples ought unanimously to adopt the idea
of southern Europe, striving for the most peaceful and sweetest form of
life possible."

A cruel smile played over the Russian's beard.

"But there exists that Kultur, diametrically opposed to civilization,
which the Germans wish to palm off upon us. Civilization is refinement
of spirit, respect of one's neighbor, tolerance of foreign opinion,
courtesy of manner. Kultur is the action of a State that organizes and
assimilates individuals and communities in order to utilize them for
its own e