, 1876-04-15
THE GERMANY OF To-Day
The Empire CoBtrasied will, tne Na,iop
Cf Earlier F,urs

Dr- Hrandes, an eminent Danish author, remarks;
All public utterancts all private conversations the
very physiognomy Of the cities bear all the imprint
o; tie positive reality. Go through street in Der
lIh, everywhere yOu meet military men. uniformed
covered with badges of Lonor Most OF the writings
displayed in tie booksellers windows have a pr,cti
cal ann Even domestic utensils anG objects Of taste
are influenced by the new spirit.
The metal which IS fashionable is iron
the worl which IS fashionable is " iron" That na-
tiOn of poets anI thinkers j. busy nr the moment
with everything else cept poetry and philosophy.
Even highly cultivated Germans know little of PHI
iosop!y 10 day; not of twenty German students
in the pr sent age leIds Heel Tie interest ur poe
try a metrilal form is almost extingaishel. Poll
teal an, scc.al problems awaken Il hundred times
more atteution thsn the problems of moral culture
AM the riddles OF the heart
And yet it is this nation at orce lost itself as it
were, IN romantic r Elections and reveries and saw
is representative in Hamletl Hamlet and Bis
marck Bi-raryk and the romantic, Surely the
grea; stttcsInn as stirred up all Germany fOm the
very bottom, AMI hurried way with himself, Le
cause he, in his Own person. brought TO the nation
those qualities it h,d lor, missed and longed for.
With linn the political has resoI' Ell the es;het.cal.
Germany has b. come one the military monarchy hus
swallowed up the little states, and, with them all
their iayls; PRUSSIA has become GermGny's Pied
mont, and has impressed upon the new empire rs
own e,uIar anI pricticli turn OF mind, at the
tine that tie natural sciences have suPpaDted and
reformed phiisophy and the national ideal suppant-
ell and modified the ideal of humanity. The Of
L., ,l-a- fpsar1
siisIn; tie victims of 1870 were pre-eminently tie
pioiuct of most circumspect calculation.
The idea under whose star new Germany stands Is
the idea Of regulating ones self according TO :he
whole. 1t peuetratcs life AM literature. The ex-
pressiou - In Rank aud File the title OF L cotem-
rorary rofnanc,l might answer in this respect as a
comm wacL-word The scattered Is To be collected
tie culture, confined TO q lew, extended; great
state and great society TO be established and
resignation s .equired from the diiyidual so as to
p.tGnote best the wo king Of the wLOl5. The work
ing Of the whoel This is tine most significant pie
uo:ueEo, of the aSe. It IS The belief IN this which
lies at the bottom OF Bisnlreks organization, OF La
seIles ugitaton OF Molke's military science and oi
Warmers music Ii Is the wiil 10 educate the people
aud unite them for oounmon aim thst i'e' at TIE
bottom of the literary activity Of Germanys prose
writer's. All tie productions which mirror the aga
most faithful Lave in common one pecuiiHri y MAJ
yorI have been clle, earlier Ohlectiylty ana reh!-
i1mtey keep 10 tie sub ect and the thing discussed
The workiu ol the whole is limited ~ literature Of
IT, -e,r of historical ideas, the belief IN piCsftsz
and freedom as historical powers The rela ioh %
the individual to humanity, the sacrifice OF tlie
,Es- or the ldea stands here in sharp de NATION ol
tbe Individual ith his peculiaities, the
for everything historical and poLticSi' 'iA' -Nai
| the romantic school of literature.