Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-08-20
BISMARCK AS A POLITICAL
HAMLET.


Prince Bismarck passes for a man
of inhexible character, self. assured,
without ever a doubt or scruple
concerning either his aims or his re.
suits. Many suppose that he must
look back upon his deeds and crea-
tions as on the seventh day God the
Father contemplated the world be
had made. This l will not dispute.
But he has also hours of weakness,
moments of apparent or real dissat.
isfaction with his own performances
or with his foTtune-sad, or rather
depressed, moods which take the
form of dependency. The strong
Prince Bismarck is then transformed
into a wearied Prince Hamlet.
Anon he strongly reminds us, in GER
tain respects, of Achilles sulking in
his tent before Ilion, or of the ex-
clamation of the preacher, Solomon:
81 looked on all the works that nv
hands had wrought, and on the la
Dor that / had labored to do; and
behold all was vanity and vexation
Of spirit, and there was no profit
under the SUM-" 1t may be that
these moods are the expression of
mystic process in his soul, of SEN
timent akin to that OF the philoso.
pher who SAID, "The more / know,
the better do / see how little l know"
but, possibly, too, they are simply
the result of physical causes-oYer-
excitement, exhaustion, disturbance
of the nervous system. One even
ing at Varzin, after contemplating
for awhile the darkening horizon, he
complained to us that he had derived
little pleasure or satisfaction from
his political labors, which had won
for him no friends, which had
brought happiness to no one, either
to himself, to his family, or to others.
We expressed dissent, but he went
on TO say that ''that on the contrary,
they had made many unhappy.
But for me three great wars would
not have occurred, $4,000 men would
not have fallen in battle, aud pa
rents, brothers, sisters, widows, would
not have mourned." "Nor sweet
hearts," some one added. "Nor
sweethearts," he repeated, in mono
tone. "That, however, l have set
tied with God. Still, / have reaped
little or no happiness from all that
l have done; but, on the contrary,
much vexatiOn, anxiety, weariness,
and ill-usage." He continued for a
time in the same strain. The rest of
us were silent, and l was surprised.
Subsequently / learned that of late
years he has repeatedly expressed
himself TO the same effect. In his
correspondence, too, we find evil
dence of this Hamlet mood, and at a
rather early period of his life.
When, in 1859, Austria was defeated
in the war with France and Italy,
and Prussia was preparing to help
her, Bismarck, who rightly thought
that no good would come of it, but
who, at that time holding a subord-
mate position, was unable to revoke
a step that afterward was rendered
unnecessary by the peace of Villa
franca, wrote as follows: "God's
will be done bat the whole thing is
simply a question of time. Nations
and individuals, follow and wisdom,
war and peace, come and go like the
waves, but the sea remains. Truly,
there is in this world nothing but
hypocrisy and jugglery, and wheth.
er it is a buttet that does away this
mask of flesh, off it must come,
sooner or later, and then an Austrian
and a Prussian will be so much
alike, provided that they are of the
same stature, that it will not be easy
to distinguish them. Even fools
and wise men, when reduced to
skeletons, are very much alike.
This consideration, it is true, does
away with special patriotism, but
eyen now we should be driven to
despair were our happiness to de-
pend on that"
Moritz Busch in North american
ReUielo.
Il PossfbIe