centiate
Roederer, author of several works on the theory and practice of
politics.'

'You immensely interest me,' said the Prince; 'the more so as I gather
that here in Grunewald we are on the brink of revolution. Pray, since
these have been your special studies, would you augur hopefully of such a
movement?'

'I perceive,' said the young author, with a certain vinegary twitch,
'that you are unacquainted with my opuscula. I am a convinced
authoritarian. I share none of those illusory, Utopian fancies with
which empirics blind themselves and exasperate the ignorant. The day of
these ideas is, believe me, past, or at least passing.'

'When I look about me--' began Otto.

'When you look about you,' interrupted the licentiate, 'you behold the
ignorant. But in the laboratory of opinion, beside the studious lamp, we
begin already to discard these figments. We begin to return to nature's
order, to what I might call, if I were to borrow from the language of
therapeutics, the expectant treatment of abuses. You will not
misunderstand me,' he continued: 'a country in the condition in which we
find Grunewald, a prince such as your Prince Otto, we must explicitly
condemn; they are behind the age. But I would look for a remedy not to
brute convulsions, but to the natural supervenience of a more able
sovereign. I should amuse you, perhaps,' added the licentiate, with a
smile, 'I think I should amuse you if I were to explain my notion of a
prince. We who have studied in the closet, no longer, in this age,
propose ourselves for active service. The paths, we have perceived, are
incompatible. I would not have a student on the throne, though I would
have one near by for an adviser. I would set forward as prince a man of
a good, medium understanding, lively rather than deep; a man of courtly
manner, possessed of the double art to ingratiate and to command;
receptive, accommodating, seductive. I have been observing you since
your first entrance. Well, sir, were I a subject of Grunewald I should
pray heaven to set upon the seat of government just such another as
yourself.'

'The devil you would!' exclaimed the Prince.

The licentiate Roederer laughed most heartily. 'I thought I should
astonish you,' he said. 'These are not the ideas of the masses.'

'They are not, I can assure you,' Otto said.

'Or rather,' distinguished the licentiate, 'not to-day. The time will
come, however, when these ideas shall prevail.'

'