he thing, but pursue the strict
psychological distinction. Others besides German soldiers have slain the
defenseless, for loot or lust or private malice, like any other
murderer. The point is that nowhere else but in Prussian Germany is any
theory of honor mixed up with such things, any more than with poisoning
or picking pockets. No French, English, Italian, or American gentleman
would think he had in some way cleared his own character by sticking his
sabre through some ridiculous greengrocer who had nothing in his hand
but a cucumber. It would seem as if the word which is translated from
the German as "honor" must really mean something quite different in
German. It seems to mean something more like what we should call
"prestige."

*Absence of the Reciprocal Idea.*

The fundamental fact, however, is the absence of the reciprocal idea.
The Prussian is not sufficiently civilized for the duel. Even when he
crosses swords with us his thoughts are not as our thoughts; when we
both glorify war we are glorifying different things. Our medals are
wrought like his, but they do not mean the same thing; our regiments are
cheered as his are, but the thought in the heart is not the same; the
Iron Cross is on the bosom of his King, but it is not the sign of our
God. For we, alas! follow our God with many relapses and
self-contradictions, but he follows his very consistently. Through all
the things that we have examined, the view of national boundaries, the
view of military methods, the view of personal honor and self-defense,
there runs in their case something of an atrocious simplicity; something
too simple for us to understand; the idea that glory consists in holding
the steel, and not in facing it.

If further examples were necessary it would be easy to give hundreds of
them. Let us leave, for the moment, the relations between man and man in
the thing called the duel. Let us take the relation between man and
woman, in that immortal duel which we call a marriage. Here again we
shall find that other Christian civilizations aim at some kind of
equality, even if the balance be irrational or dangerous. Thus, the two
extremes of the treatment of women might be represented by what are
called the respectable classes in America and in France. In America they
choose the risk of comradeship, in France the compensation of courtesy.
In America it is practically possible for any young gentleman to take
any young lady for what he calls (I d