The False Islanders.
(Before the War.)
392. The climate, the want of wine, and lack of beautiful scenery, have all been obstacles in the way of English Kultur. H. v. Treitschke, P., Vol. i., p. 222.
393. The English nationalism is also cosmopolitanism: the service of his own nation appears to the Englishman the service of mankind. For he regards his own nation as the mistress of the highest Kultur-treasures, to which other nations look up in order to admire and imitate. Thus Anglification is identified with the furtherance of human Kultur.—G. v. Schulze-Gaevernitz, B.I., p. 49.
394. England's strength resides in arrogant self-esteem, Germany's greatness in the modest appreciation of everything foreign. England is self-seeking to the point of insanity, Germany is just even to self-depreciation.—Th. Fontane (about 1854), E.B., p. 389.
395. At the time of the illness of the Emperor Frederick, Treitschke, at the end of a long speech, summed up his sentiments in these words: "It must come to this that no German dog shall for evermore accept a piece of bread from the hand of an Englishman." These words, uttered in an outburst of passion, aroused no mirth, but went to the heart of the audience.—E.B., p. 395.
396. After the Boer War, Wildenbruch was done with England.... She was dead for him, and erased from the Book of Life. All the contempt which now leads us to raise, not the sword, but the whip, against that abortion compounded of low greed and shameless hypocrisy, he then screamed out to the world in words which we could not even to-day make bitterer or more scathing.—Prof. B. Litzmann, D.R.S.Z., No. 12, p. 13.
397. It is just as Schleiermacher said a hundred years ago: "These false islanders, wrongly admired by many, have no other watchword but gain and enjoyment. They are never in earnest about anything that transcends practical utility."—Pastor M. Hennig, D.K.U.W., p. 37.