LIFE OUT OF DEATH.

Wanganui Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15340, 1 October 1917, Page 8

LIFE OUT OF DEATH.

GERMANY LOOKS AHEAD. PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE. ("I think we do well to not© with close attention the tremendous importance ataohed by our principal enemy to prepartion for the future," says the well-informed correspondent of the Christian World, lately in Berlin.) In this connection, he calls attention to a notable speech by Professor Eucken. A speech by Dr. von Betmannnollweg, publshecl. on the same day, calls even more prominence to this important point—Germany's preparation tor the future. • "After the war we shall be confronted with the moat gigantic tasks which have ever confronted & nation," said the German Chancellor. "They are so gigantic that the entire people will have to work to solve them. "A srong foreign policy will be necessary after the war. We shall be surrounded by enemies whom we shall not meet with loud words, but with the internal strength of the nation. We can only pursue such a policy if the patriotism- which, during the war, has developed to such a marvellous reality is maintained and strengthened. "Woe to the statesman who does not recognise the signs of the time; who after this catastrophe, the like of whia the world has never seen, believes he can take up the- work where it was interrupted. I shall devote my last effort to carrying out this idea of making our peoplo strong. Beyond all question, only one thought nils me, and all of us, at present—namely, how to bring this war to a victorious end. As the war can only be won by the exertion of the most extreme man-power, and as to this strength also truth must be united, I . have freely expressed my thoughts about internal politics, and about the future of our people, whom God preserve." WHAT EUCKEN SAYS. "With all his aberration, all his deviations from the path.3 of strict justice and moraliy, we must continue to legard Eucken as one of the foremost men of Germany, and it is due to him and to hi'j old reputation to note any return to sane and reasonable views, and to that attitude of cool detachment which should characterise the words and actions of so eminent a philosopher," says the Christian World correspondent. "That is why I should refer /to a lecture of his delivered in the great hall of the Prussian Hou3e of Deputies on "The Experiences of the War and Demands of the Future.' Naturally, the lecturer dealt with German experiences and with the future of Germany, but Eucken's utterances, while showing many regrettable weaknesses, dealt in a large and spacious way with questions possessing an Interest far beyond the bounds of the German Empire. "He pointed oat that this war, more tlian any previous conflict of nations, had struck deep into the soul of manland; that th,e war had revealed a general prevalence of fcetnshness, falsehood, and greed among all the nations concerned in it far more widespread than Jiad teen hitherto suspected. Belief in the fundamental goodness of mankind had received some' shattering blows. THE DEPTHS OF LIFE. "He asks the question, What are the depths of life, what jure the foundations of oar hopes for the future? In the past the German was proud of his work and his general efficiency. It was this which was so often at the root 01 the envy and malice with which German? was assailed, but was this pride of work and organisation and education not lacking iu the deeper things of life which really counted: 1 Work and its objects were pushed by Germans into the iront of their lives, and little «lse was heeded. Instead of cultivating thosi* deeper .ind in-.ponderable things, the German added to' his lust for work a lust for pleasure. The desires of the 1-odv took the plac? of the desires of the spirit. It looked sometimes is <houj*h the German spirit had no do* sjrcj at till. <

"In a fine passage Eucken told "his distinguished audience that the country had built for itself a. beautiful temple in which there was no Holy of Holies and that this was a temple which had no chance of duration. If Germany is to livev it is necessary that she should die. Essential for the nation is the cultivation of a responsible sense of moral values, the development of a feeling which will enable it to distinguish between the e\il and the good, between the leal and the unreal, between truth and falsehood, between greatness and pettiness. THE SMALLER GREW THEIR SOULS "He did not hesitate to tell his audience that the greater their perfection in work grew, the smaller grew their souls. There was no room for growth of soul when the bulk of the nation cultivated the spirit of negation and mockery. In the heart of. man, said Eucken, dwell the demoniac and the dark powers of evil. Germans mustlearn to know the spirits that rule them, and to cast their lot with those spirits which will lead them into real freedom of soul and to the heights of moral and spiritual courage. "In the life of our society after the war," aclde Eucken, "a man must be estimated, solely by the manhood in him. Because he lacks rank, title, riches, standing, this must not be a reason for ignoring him or for pushing him into the background. A man is a man, and our task is to do all in our power to see that after the war he comes into Ms own. We are at work at the loom of history; let us work in the right spirit for the triumph of the spiritual. "Eucken attacks the numerous problems of the after-war period from the point of view of the moralist. He woujd see the nation more eager to • hold on high those great values of the soul without which no nation can be truly great, 'without which no nation can fulfil its world mission.' Much of his teaching is vitiated, of course, by intolerance and short-sightedness in other direction*, but it is clear that the feeling exists that Germany in the past has been lacking "n some of the deep es3en tials of moral grandeur, and it is equally clear that an attempt is being made to guard against the continuance of the materialistic spirit. GERMAN CRITIC OF OUR WORKERS "In conclusion, I would draw attention to a lecture delivered recently in Brealau by a Dr. Bassewitz on 'Germany after the War.' The spirit of the lecturer was bad, but his remarks illustrate what many influential people in Germany are thinking. Dr. Bassewitz was &ddressing a workingf-class audience. 'I do not believe for a moment that all the Paris. Conferences in the' world will affect us detrimentally so long as we maintain our superiority in educa* tioh and technique. It is not conceit which enables me to eay that when we look around the world: we" find no working classes to be compared with ours in the variety of their attainment and the absolute mastery of their business. "Let us study the working- men of our great rival, Great Britain. What do we see? While enormous efforts are being made by a small body of f*r-