rests on the abuse of a metaphor.  The bond between the dwellers in the same political area is far less close than that between the organs of a living body.  Every man has a life of his own, and some purely personal rights; he has, moreover, moral links with other human associations, outside his own country, and important moral duties towards them.  No one who reflects on the solidarity of interests among capitalists, among hand-workers, or, in a different way, among scholars and artists, all over the world, can fail to see that the apotheosis of the state, whether in the interest of war or of revolution, is an anachronism and an absurdity.

A very different basis for patriotic sentiment is furnished by the scientific or pseudo-scientific theories about race, which have become very popular in our time.  When the history of ideas in the 20th century comes to be written, it is certain that among the causes of this great war will be named the belief of the Germans in the superiority of their own race, based on certain historical and ethnological theories which have acted like a heady wine in stimulating the spirit of aggression among them.  The theory, stated briefly, is that the shores of the Baltic are the home of the finest human type that has yet existed, a type distinguished by blond hair, great physical strength, unequalled mental vigour and ability, superior morality, and an innate aptitude for governing and improving inferior races.  Unfortunately for the world, this noble stock cannot flourish for very long in climates unlike its own; but from the earliest historical times it has ‘swarmed’ periodically, subjugating the feebler peoples of the south, and elevating them for a time above the level which they were naturally fitted to reach.  Wherever we find marked energy and nobleness of character, we may suspect Aryan blood; and history will usually support our surmise.  Among the great men who were certainly or probably Germans were Agamemnon, Julius Caesar, the Founder of Christianity, Dante, and Shakespeare.  The blond Nordic giant is fulfilling his mission by conquering and imposing his culture upon other races.  They ought to be grateful to him for the service, especially as it has a sacrificial aspect, the lower types having, at least in their own climates, greater power of survival.

This fantastic theory has been defended in a large number of German books, of which the ‘Foundations of the Nineteenth Century,’ by the renegade Englishman Houston Chamberlain, is the most widely known.  The objections to it are numerous.  It is notorious that until the invention of gunpowder the settled and civilised peoples of Europe were in frequent danger from bands of hardier mountaineers, forest-dwellers, or pastoral nomads, who generally came from the north.  But the formidable fighting powers of these marauders were no proof of intrinsic superiority.  In fact, the most successful of these conquerors, if success is measured by the amount of