The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1918. THE KAISER'S DELUSIONS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 199, 11 May 1918, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, MAY 11, 1918. THE KAISER'S DELUSIONS

-'Recent' reports' from Switzerland state".that, the Kaiser - is showing signs'- of mental derangement.'; ; He is said to.be obsessed with the idea that he is the special envoy of Gop, and even God Himself. Long before the war broke out he was accustomed to speak in the most extravagant way about his relations with the Almighty. He held very strong views about the Divine right 'if the German Emperor, and-'sinco the outbreak of wfr this claim to reign by Divine right appears to have led him on to believe in his personal divinity. , The Roman Emperors were deified, and the Kaiser has persuaded himself that tholGcrvuan Emperors are the successors of' the Caesars. ' His mental balance has never been very secure, and it' would not be surprising to hear 'at any moment .that it. has. .been coin-! clctely upset.. Some influential German philosophers hold that-there 'is nothing higher in the universe than' the German State. _ The only religion that they believe in is State worship. Power is God. Taking his cue from this philosophy, the Kaiser has apparently come! to the conclusion that, as head of an almighty State, he is the embodiment of Almighty power, and therefore that he is God incarnate. As King of tho Supermen, the Kaiser sits in lonely splendour high above .- all. •ither mortals'. So he imagines. Nietzsche, the German philosopher, who raved so much about tho superman and poured contempt upon Christianity, died a raving lunatic. He gave his autobiography tho title Ecce. Homo, with the .evident intention of placing himself _ in comparison and contrast; with . tho founder of Christianity, ylfc" is an amazingly gror.esa.uo laudation of Himself and his works. Liko the Kaiser he developed the mad idea that he was God. "Let us be happy," lie would say. "I am God. I have made this" caricature." The historian Treitsciike, who is said to have embodied the soul of Germany, established the'connection between Nietzsche's pagan religion of the "superman and the Prussian State. A recent writer tells us that Treitsciike "made the Prussian State his religion, the House of Hohen'zoliiElin his divinity, and war the instrument of salvation." As the result of tho teachings of Nietzsche, Teeitschkb, and their

followers; Heine's prophecy of the return of the old gods lias been fulfilled. Some eighty, years ago he v/rote these remarkable words:

"Christianity—.".mi this i; its highest merit—has in some degree softened, but it could not <le»'roj, lhab brutal German joy of battle. When once the taming talisman, the Cro«, breaks n; two, the savagery of tho old furhtoi-s, the senseless Berserker fury of which 1.113 northern poets siiijj and s.iy so much, will gusli -tip anew. That talisman is decayed, and the j day wili oonio when it will piteously coilapse. Then tho oh! stone, gods will rise from the silent ruin? aim rub the I dust of a thousand years from their eyes. Thor. with-hir'- giant hammer, .will at last spring ui> and shatter to bits tho Gothic, cathedrals." The present generation has witnessed the overthrow in Germany of the Gross, and the ideas which the Gross represents, and it has also witnessed the natural consequences of the rejection of Christianity—the wanton destruction of French cathedrals. Af';er a sleep of fourteen centuries,' Odin, the War God, has come back to Germany. "Ye have heard men. say, 'Blessed are the peacemakers' (writes Nietzsche), but I say unto, you, blessed are the warmakors, for t-hcy shall be called, if not the sons of Jakvb (Jehovah), the children of Odin, who is greater than Jahve." The god that the Raiser isyso fond of invoking as his .specialWricnd and ally is much more like Odin than like the God of Christianity. The Raiser must have had the pagan deity in his mind when he declared that God would not have taken such pains with tho German Fatherland hadHc | not in store for it a "grand destiny. God's spirit, he says, "is _ incarnate in me, in my quality ' of Emperor. I am God's sword and representative on earth." If such wild blasphemy is not sheer madness, it is go'like it that the ordinary man cannot sec the difference. Professor Ejiile Boutroux, of the University of Paris, tells us thatan influential school of German philosophers holds that success is the proof of a. nation's divine election. This test, they contend, • justifies Germany's claim to dominate all other nations, and marks her out as God's lieutenant or vice-regent on earth—God Himself,.visible and tangible to His creatures.-. Germany, they say, is the orily elect, and reprobation'is cast on all other nations. On the German nation alone falls the task of doing God's work on earth.'

"Germany, therefore, possessing all the virtues, has nothing to learn from other nations, and so owes them neither respect nor good-will. The word humanity .has ho meaning to a German, who is conscions that lie is himself the one supremo human being. When •the Kaiser saysi 'To my mind humanity does not exist beyond the. Vosges,' he imagines .that everything outsido'his Empire is valueless until it is annexed (thereto."

Those wild ideas, and the danger they threaten to the whole world, can only be driven out of the minds 6l the German Emperor and people by the decisive defeat of the Central Powers in this war. Nothing but overwhelming defeat will 'cause the Germans to abandon the mad-house, theories of German domination by Divine right which are responsible for the conflict which is new shaking civilisation to its foundations.