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GERMAN IDEALS OF TO-DAY

years

ONE of the most interesting fragments that have been preserved to us from Schiller's literary workshop, is a Hymn to Germany which occupied the poet's mind during the last of his life. This Hymn never passed the stage of sketches, partly in verse, partly in prose; but even these sketches give us an idea of the noble conception of the whole. Apparently, Schiller wanted to proclaim the greatness of Germany in the midst of her national disasters; he wanted to tell his people, threatened in its very existence by the Napoleonic invasion, that there was still a hope left for it; he wanted to contrast the brute force of military prowess with the eternal achievements of literature and art. "May Germany,"

thus runs the beginning of this sketch, "may Germany, at a moment when she issues without glory from a terrible war, when two arrogant nations have set their feet upon her neck, when the victor rules her fate, may

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she feel herself? May the German take pride in his name? May he lift his head, and with firm step appear in the company of nations? Yes, he may. He has been unsuccessful in the fight; but that which makes his worth he has not lost. German Empire and German people are two different things. Bereft of political power, the German has found his worth in another sphere, a sphere of his own; and even if the Empire were to crumble to pieces, German greatness would remain unimpaired.

Das ist nicht des Deutschen Grösse,

Obzusiegen mit dem Schwert;

In das Geisterreich zu dringen,

Vorurteile zu besiegen,

Männlich mit dem Wahn zu kriegen,

Das ist seines Eifers wert.

To him, the German, the highest destiny has

been set. He has been chosen by the WorldSpirit, in the midst of temporary struggles, to devote his work to the eternal structure of human culture, to give permanence to what the fleeting moment brings. Therefore he has assimilated and made his own what other nations have produced. Whatever came to life in other ages and countries, and disappeared. again, he has stored up,- the treasures of

centuries are his. Every people has its day; the day of the German is the harvest of all time."

How strangely out of date do these words, born from a patriot's grief over the political humiliation of his people, appear at a time when "German nation" and "German Empire" are happily not any longer contradictory terms; when through extraordinary military achievements, as well as through a wise and far-seeing statesmanship, the political power of Germany has been more firmly established than ever before; when German commerce and industry are competing for the front rank among nations in every quarter of the globe. The question which confronts us of to-day is precisely the opposite from the one which confronted Schiller and his contemporaries. Then the question was: Will the high state of intellectual refinement, of literary and artistic culture, reached by the educated few react upon the masses and bring about a new era of popular energy? Will the striving of the German mind for universally human and eternal values, for enlightenment, for spirituality, for cosmopolitanism, result in a heightening of national power also, and in a revival.

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