True, I am very far from thinking that this monu-
ment of anti-Christian pride represents the spirit
of the better part of Germany. I know how many
noble hearts, moderate, affectionate, incapable of
doing evil and almost of conceiving it, go to make
up her moral strength; amongst them are friends
that I shall never cease to esteem. I know how
many intrepid minds work ceaselessly in German
science for the conquest of the truth. But I see on
the one hand these good people so over-confident,
so tractable, with their eyes shut, ignorant of the
facts and unwilling to recognize anything but what
it is the pleasure of their Government that they shall
know; and on the other, the clearest minds of Ger-
many, historians and savants, trained for the criti-
cism of texts, basing their conviction on documents
which all emanate from one alone of the parties
concerned, and by way of peremptory proof refer-
ing us to the ex-parte affirmations of their Emperor,
and of their Chancellor, like well-behaved scholars,
whose only argument is Magister dixit. What hope
remains of convincing such people that there exists
a truth beyond that master, and that in addition to
his White Book we have in our hands books of
every kind and of every color, whose testimony
demands the attention of an impartial judge? But

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