The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Part 12

That was what this cousin was for him, a mere Sitzfleisch haben.

Doctor von Hartrott, on explaining his visit, spoke in Spanish.

He availed himself of this language used by the family during his childhood, as a precaution, looking around repeatedly as if he feared to be heard. He had come to bid his cousin farewell. His mother had told him of his return, and he had not wished to leave Paris without seeing him. He was leaving in a few hours, since matters were growing more strained.

"But do you really believe that there will be war?" asked Desnoyers.

"War will be declared to-morrow or the day after. Nothing can prevent it now. It is necessary for the welfare of humanity."

Silence followed this speech, Julio and Argensola looking with astonishment at this peaceable-looking man who had just spoken with such martial arrogance. The two suspected that the professor was making this visit in order to give vent to his opinions and enthusiasms. At the same time, perhaps, he was trying to find out what they might think and know, as one of the many viewpoints of the people in Paris.

"You are not French," he added looking at his cousin. "You were born in Argentina, so before you I may speak the truth."

"And were you not born there?" asked Julio smiling.

The Doctor made a gesture of protest, as though he had just heard something insulting. "No, I am a German. No matter where a German may be born, he always belongs to his mother country." Then turning to Argensola--"This gentleman, too, is a foreigner. He comes from n.o.ble Spain, which owes to us the best that it has--the wors.h.i.+p of honor, the knightly spirit."

The Spaniard wished to remonstrate, but the Sage would not permit, adding in an oracular tone:

"You were miserable Celts, sunk in the vileness of an inferior and mongrel race whose domination by Rome but made your situation worse.

Fortunately you were conquered by the Goths and others of our race who implanted in you a sense of personal dignity. Do not forget, young man, that the Vandals were the ancestors of the Prussians of to-day."

Again Argensola tried to speak, but his friend signed to him not to interrupt the professor who appeared to have forgotten his former reserve and was working up to an enthusiastic pitch with his own words.

"We are going to witness great events," he continued. "Fortunate are those born in this epoch, the most interesting in history! At this very moment, humanity is changing its course. Now the true civilization begins."

The war, according to him, was going to be of a brevity hitherto unseen.

Germany had been preparing herself to bring about this event without any long, economic world-disturbance. A single month would be enough to crush France, the most to be feared of their adversaries. Then they would march against Russia, who with her slow, clumsy movements could not oppose an immediate defense. Finally they would attack haughty England, so isolated in its archipelago that it could not obstruct the sweep of German progress. This would make a series of rapid blows and overwhelming victories, requiring only a summer in which to play this magnificent role. The fall of the leaves in the following autumn would greet the definite triumph of Germany.

With the a.s.surance of a professor who does not expect his dictum to be refuted by his hearers, he explained the superiority of the German race. All mankind was divided into two groups--dolicephalous and the brachicephalous, according to the shape of the skull. Another scientific cla.s.sification divided men into the light-haired and dark-haired. The dolicephalous (arched heads) represented purity of race and superior mentality. The brachicephalous (flat heads) were mongrels with all the stigma of degeneration. The German, dolicephalous par excellence, was the only descendant of the primitive Aryans. All the other nations, especially those of the south of Europe called "latins," belonged to a degenerate humanity.

The Spaniard could not contain himself any longer. "But no person with any intelligence believes any more in those antique theories of race!

What if there no longer existed a people of absolutely pure blood, owing to thousands of admixtures due to historical conquests!" ... Many Germans bore the identical ethnic marks which the professor was attributing to the inferior races.

"There is something in that," admitted Hartrott, "but although the German race may not be perfectly pure, it is the least impure of all races and, therefore, should have dominion over the world."

His voice took on an ironic and cutting edge when speaking of the Celts, inhabitants of the lands of the South. They had r.e.t.a.r.ded the progress of Humanity, deflecting it in the wrong direction. The Celt is individualistic and consequently an ungovernable revolutionary who tends to socialism. Furthermore, he is a humanitarian and makes a virtue of mercy, defending the existence of the weak who do not amount to anything.

The ill.u.s.trious German places above everything else, Method and Power.

Elected by Nature to command the impotent races, he possesses all the qualifications that distinguish the superior leader. The French Revolution was merely a clash between Teutons and Celts. The n.o.bility of France were descended from Germanic warriors established in the country after the so-called invasion of the barbarians. The middle and lower cla.s.ses were the Gallic-Celtic element. The inferior race had conquered the superior, disorganizing the country and perturbing the world.

Celtism was the inventor of Democracy, of the doctrines of Socialism and Anarchy. Now the hour of Germanic retaliation was about to strike, and the Northern race would re-establish order, since G.o.d had favored it by demonstrating its indisputable superiority.

"A nation," he added, "can aspire to great destinies only when it is fundamentally Teutonic. The less German it is, the less its civilization amounts to. We represent 'the aristocracy of humanity,' 'the salt of the earth,' as our William said."

Argensola was listening with astonishment to this outpouring of conceit.

All the great nations had pa.s.sed through the fever of Imperialism. The Greeks aspired to world-rule because they were the most civilized and believed themselves the most fit to give civilization to the rest of mankind. The Romans, upon conquering countries, implanted law and the rule of justice. The French of the Revolution and the Empire justified their invasions on the plea that they wished to liberate mankind and spread abroad new ideas. Even the Spaniards of the sixteenth century, when battling with half of Europe for religious unity and the extermination of heresy, were working toward their ideals obscure and perhaps erroneous, but disinterested.

All the nations of history had been struggling for something which they had considered generous and above their own interests. Germany alone, according to this professor, was trying to impose itself upon the world in the name of racial superiority--a superiority that n.o.body had recognized, that she was arrogating to herself, coating her affirmations with a varnish of false science.

"Until now wars have been carried on by the soldiery," continued Hartrott. "That which is now going to begin will be waged by a combination of soldiers and professors. In its preparation the University has taken as much part as the military staff. German science, leader of all sciences, is united forever with what the Latin revolutionists disdainfully term militarism. Force, mistress of the world, is what creates right, that which our truly unique civilization imposes. Our armies are the representatives of our culture, and in a few weeks we shall free the world from its decadence, completely rejuvenating it."

The vision of the immense future of his race was leading him on to expose himself with lyrical enthusiasm. William I, Bismarck, all the heroes of past victories, inspired his veneration, but he spoke of them as dying G.o.ds whose hour had pa.s.sed. They were glorious ancestors of modest pretensions who had confined their activities to enlarging the frontiers, and to establis.h.i.+ng the unity of the Empire, afterwards opposing themselves with the prudence of valetudinarians to the daring of the new generation. Their ambitions went no further than a continental hegemony ... but now William II had leaped into the arena, the complex hero that the country required.

"Lamprecht, my master, has pictured his greatness. It is tradition and the future, method and audacity. Like his grandfather, the Emperor holds the conviction of what monarchy by the grace of G.o.d represents, but his vivid and modern intelligence recognizes and accepts modern conditions.

At the same time that he is romantic, feudal and a supporter of the agrarian conservatives, he is also an up-to-date man who seeks practical solutions and shows a utilitarian spirit. In him are correctly balanced instinct and reason."

Germany, guided by this hero, had, according to Hartrott, been concentrating its strength, and recognizing its true path. The Universities supported him even more unanimously than the army. Why store up so much power and maintain it without employment? ... The empire of the world belongs to the German people. The historians and philosophers, disciples of Treitschke, were taking it upon themselves to frame the rights that would justify this universal domination. And Lamprecht, the psychological historian, like the other professors, was launching the belief in the absolute superiority of the Germanic race.

It was just that it should rule the world, since it only had the power to do so. This "telurian germanization" was to be of immense benefit to mankind. The earth was going to be happy under the dictators.h.i.+p of a people born for mastery. The German state, "tentacular potency," would eclipse with its glory the most imposing empire of the past and present.

Gott mit uns!

"Who will be able to deny, as my master says, that there exists a Christian, German G.o.d, the 'Great Ally,' who is showing himself to our enemies, the foreigners, as a strong and jealous divinity?" ...

Desnoyers was listening to his cousin with astonishment and at the same time looking at Argensola who, with a flutter of his eyes, seemed to be saying to him, "He is mad! These Germans are simply mad with pride."

Meanwhile, the professor, unable to curb his enthusiasm, continued expounding the grandeur of his race. From his viewpoint, the providential Kaiser had shown inexplicable weakenings. He was too good and too kind. "Deliciae generis humani," as had said Professor La.s.son, another of Hartrott's masters. Able to overthrow everything with his annihilating power, the Emperor was limiting himself merely to maintaining peace. But the nation did not wish to stop there, and was pus.h.i.+ng its leader until it had him started. It was useless now to put on the brakes. "He who does not advance recedes";--that was the cry of PanGermanism to the Emperor. He must press on in order to conquer the entire world.

"And now war comes," continued the pedant. "We need the colonies of the others, even though Bismarck, through an error of his stubborn old age, exacted nothing at the time of universal distribution, letting England and France get possession of the best lands. We must control all countries that have Germanic blood and have been civilized by our forbears."

Hartrott enumerated these countries. Holland and Belgium were German.

France, through the Franks, was one-third Teutonic blood. Italy... .

Here the professor hesitated, recalling the fact that this nation was still an ally, certainly a little insecure, but still united by diplomatic bonds. He mentioned, nevertheless, the Longobards and other races coming from the North. Spain and Portugal had been populated by the ruddy Goth and also belonged to the dominant race. And since the majority of the nations of America were of Spanish and Portuguese origin, they should also be included in this recovery.

"It is a little premature to think of these last nations just yet,"

added the Doctor modestly, "but some day the hour of justice will sound.

After our continental triumph, we shall have time to think of their fate... . North America also should receive our civilizing influence, for there are living millions of Germans who have created its greatness."

He was talking of the future conquests as though they were marks of distinction with which his country was going to favor other countries.

These were to continue living politically the same as before with their individual governments, but subject to the Teutons, like minors requiring the strong hand of a master. They would form the Universal United States, with an hereditary and all-powerful president--the Emperor of Germany--receiving all the benefits of Germanic culture, working disciplined under his industrial direction... . But the world is ungrateful, and human badness always opposes itself to progress.

"We have no illusions," sighed the professor, with lofty sadness. "We have no friends. All look upon us with jealousy, as dangerous beings, because we are the most intelligent, the most active, and have proved ourselves superior to all others... . But since they no longer love us, let them fear us! As my friend Mann says, although Kultur is the spiritual organization of the world, it does not exclude b.l.o.o.d.y savagery when that becomes necessary. Kultur sanctifies the demon within us, and is above morality, reason and science. We are going to impose Kultur by force of the cannon."

Argensola continued, saying with his eyes, "They are crazy, crazy with pride! ... What can the world expect of such people!"

Desnoyers here intervened in order to brighten this gloomy monologue with a little optimism. War had not yet been positively declared. The diplomats were still trying to arrange matters. Perhaps it might all turn out peaceably at the last minute, as had so often happened before.

His cousin was seeing things entirely distorted by an aggressive enthusiasm.

Oh, the ironical, ferocious and cutting smile of the Doctor! Argensola had never known old Madariaga, but it, nevertheless, occurred to him that in this fas.h.i.+on sharks must smile, although he, too, had never seen a shark.

"It is war," boomed Hartrott. "When I left Germany, fifteen days ago, I knew that war was inevitable."

The certainty with which he said this dissipated all Julio's hope.

Moreover, this man's trip, on the pretext of seeing his mother, disquieted him... . On what mission had Doctor Julius von Hartrott come to Paris? ...

"Well, then," asked Desnoyers, "why so many diplomatic interviews? Why does the German government intervene at all--although in such a lukewarm way--in the struggle between Austria and Servia... . Would it not be better to declare war right out?"

The professor replied with simplicity: "Our government undoubtedly wishes that the others should declare the war. The role of outraged dignity is always the most pleasing one and justifies all ulterior resolutions, however extreme they may seem. There are some of our people who are living comfortably and do not desire war. It is expedient to make them believe that those who impose it upon us are our enemies so that they may feel the necessity of defending themselves. Only superior minds reach the conviction of the great advancement that can be accomplished by the sword alone, and that war, as our grand Treitschke says, is the highest form of progress."

Again he smiled with a ferocious expression. Morality, from his point of view, should exist among individuals only to make them more obedient and disciplined, for morality per se impedes governments and should be suppressed as a useless obstacle. For the State there exists neither truth nor falsehood; it only recognizes the utility of things. The glorious Bismarck, in order to consummate the war with France, the base of German grandeur, had not hesitated to falsify a telegraphic despatch.

"And remember, that he is the most glorious hero of our time! History looks leniently upon his heroic feat. Who would accuse the one who triumphs? ... Professor Hans Delbruck has written with reason, 'Blessed be the hand that falsified the telegram of Ems!'"