he earth, one is forced to the conclusion
that Heaven will be chiefly of German manufacture. But I cannot
understand how they get there. That the soul of any single individual
German has sufficient initiative to fly up by itself and knock at St.
Peter's door, I cannot believe. My own opinion is that they are taken
there in small companies, and passed in under the charge of a dead
policeman.

Carlyle said of the Prussians, and it is true of the whole German nation,
that one of their chief virtues was their power of being drilled. Of the
Germans you might say they are a people who will go anywhere, and do
anything, they are told. Drill him for the work and send him out to
Africa or Asia under charge of somebody in uniform, and he is bound to
make an excellent colonist, facing difficulties as he would face the
devil himself, if ordered. But it is not easy to conceive of him as a
pioneer. Left to run himself, one feels he would soon fade away and die,
not from any lack of intelligence, but from sheer want of presumption.

The German has so long been the soldier of Europe, that the military
instinct has entered into his blood. The military virtues he possesses
in abundance; but he also suffers from the drawbacks of the military
training. It was told me of a German servant, lately released from the
barracks, that he was instructed by his master to deliver a letter to a
certain house, and to wait there for the answer. The hours passed by,
and the man did not return. His master, anxious and surprised, followed.
He found the man where he had been sent, the answer in his hand. He was
waiting for further orders. The story sounds exaggerated, but personally
I can credit it.

The curious thing is that the same man, who as an individual is as
helpless as a child, becomes, the moment he puts on the uniform, an
intelligent being, capable of responsibility and initiative. The German
can rule others, and be ruled by others, but he cannot rule himself. The
cure would appear to be to train every German for an officer, and then
put him under himself. It is certain he would order himself about with
discretion and judgment, and see to it that he himself obeyed himself
with smartness and precision.

For the direction of German character into these channels, the schools,
of course, are chiefly responsible. Their everlasting teaching is duty.
It is a fine ideal for any people; but before buckling to it, one would
wish to hav