A MAD NATION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 31, 7 June 1915, Page 4

A MAD NATION.

Discussing Germany’s madness i Dominion says:—A few years ago a Hungarian professor, Emil Heidi, wrote a book entitled Germany s Swelled Head. Englishmen laughed heartily when they read the specimens of German boasting quoted in M. Reich’s interesting volume. We felt that such wildly extravagant outbursts of self-praise could not be taken seriously by any sane mind.

But subsequent events have shown that they have been taken very seriously indeed in Germany. We did not make allowance for the fact that nations can go mad as well as individuals. The minds of the German people have been saturated with the idea that they are destined for world dominion and that it is their duty to

impose their “kultiir” on all otlicr countries. They have gradually become obsessed with the desire tor supremacy, and the present war is the inevitable result. This obsession is a form of madness. In September last the Kaiser said to his soldiers: “On • me, as German Emperor, the Spirit of God has descended. I am His weapon, His sword, and His vizard.” Vainglory such as this is very like lunacy. Nietzsche, the philosopher of the superman, lost his reason before he died, and Ids form

of delirium was the same sort of inordinate conceit. The last book ho wrote was all about himself. Ecce Homo was the daring title lie gave it. The chapter headings remind one of the boastings of the Kaiser and German professors about the wonderful achievements of their nation in every sphere of human activity. Here are some of them: “Why am Iso wise?” “Why am I so clever?” “Why I write such excel-

lent books.” “I did a host of things,” he writes, “of the highest rank—things that no ninn can do nowadays.” He ended up by persuading himself that he was the Deity. Of course, this is sheer madness. ButMs it any wilder than the national mania of Germany wbrca finds expression in the assertion that “the German people is the elect of God, and its enemies are the enemies of the Lord.”