oneself.  But suppose that the same insatiable thirst for conquest enters into the new form of wealth—­what follows?  Boundless ambition, which till then had spread out the coming of its gains over indefinite time, since each one of them would be worth only a definite portion of space, will now leap all at once to an object boundless as itself.  Rights will be set up on every point of the globe where raw material for industry, refitting stations for ships, concessions for capitalists, or outlets for production are seen to exist.  In fact, the policy which had served Prussia so well passed at a bound from the most calculating prudence to the wildest temerity.  Bismarck, whose common-sense put some restraint on the logic of his principles, was still averse to colonial enterprises; he said that all the affairs of the East were not worth the bones of one Pomeranian grenadier.  But Germany, retaining Bismarck’s former impulse, went straight on and rushed forward along the lines of least resistance to east and west:  on the one side lay the route to the Orient, on the other the empire of the sea.  But in so doing she virtually declared war on the nations which Bismarck had managed to keep allied or friendly.  Her ambition looked forward to the domination of the world.

Moreover, there was no moral restraint which could keep this ambition under control.  Intoxicated by victory, by the prestige which victory had given her, and of which her commerce, her industry, her science even, had reaped the benefit, Germany plunged into a material prosperity such as she had never known, such as she would never have dared to dream of.  She told herself that if force had wrought this miracle, if force had given her riches and honour, it was because force had within it a hidden virtue, mysterious—­nay, divine.  Yes, brute force with its train of trickery and lies, when it comes with powers of attack sufficient for the conquest of the world, must needs be in direct line from heaven and a revelation of the will of God on earth.  The people to whom this power of attack had come were the elect, a chosen race by whose side the others are races of bondmen.  To such a race nothing is forbidden that may help in establishing its dominion.  Let none speak to it of inviolable right!  Right is what is written in a treaty; a treaty is what registers the will of a conqueror—­that is, the direction of his force for the time being:  force, then, and right are the same thing; and if force is pleased to take a new direction, the old right becomes ancient history and the treaty, which backed it with a solemn undertaking, no more than a scrap of paper.  Thus Germany, struck with wonder in presence of her victories, of the brute force which had been their means, of the material prosperity which was the outcome, translated her amazement into an idea.  And see how, at the call of this idea, a thousand thoughts, as if awaked from slumber, and shaking off the dust of libraries, came rushing in