With the request that you present my sincerest regards to your husband, I am
Yours most respectfully and faithfully
Moritz von Egidy, Lieutenant at Sea
[29]. The passage from my eulogy here referred to ran thus:
The consciousness that an Egidy was here was such a comforting, strengthening, joyous consciousness. We had him; this possession was like the possession of a check book. If ever assistance, consolation, support were required in a spiritual campaign, in an ethical dilemma, all one had to do was to produce the check book; Egidy was certain to honor it instantly. Always the right word, the unhesitating opinion, nobility pure of dross. Even if there were heard on all sides: “The world is bad, every one thinks only of himself, there is no improvement, there are no clear notions of duty, no straight paths of virtue,” we could always smile calmly and say to ourselves, “That is not true; there is an Egidy here.”
[30]. Die Haager Friedenskonferenz, Tagebuchblätter, Dresden und Leipzig, E. Pierson. 2d edition, 1901. Price 2 marks.
[31]. This might be translated, “You have furnished us straw for our bricks.”—Translator.
[32]. My niece Maria Louise was with us at The Hague.
[33]. He refers to the letter, the composition of which, as decreed by the Interparliamentary Conference of 1894, was intrusted to Chevalier Descamps and H. La Fontaine, and which, at the direction of the Interparliamentary Congress of 1895, was sent to all the governments in the name of the Union.
[34]. Nothing of the later limitations of “vital interests” and “honor of the nations.” (Observation of 1908.)