499. The fate that Belgium has called down upon herself is hard for the individual, but not too hard for this political structure (Staatsgebilde), for the destinies of the immortal great nations stand so high that they cannot but have the right, in case of need, to stride over existences that cannot defend themselves, but live, as parasites, upon the rivalries of the great.—Prof. H. Oncken, S.M., September, 1914, p. 819.
500. Our Chancellor has, with the scrupulous conscientiousness peculiar to him, admitted that we were guilty of a certain wrong [towards Belgium]. Here I cannot follow him.... When David, in the pinch of necessity, took the shew-bread from the table of the Lord, he was absolutely in the right; for at that moment the letter of the law no longer existed.—Prof. A.V. Harnack, I.M., 1st October, 1914, p. 23.
501. We were in the position of a man who, being attacked from two sides, has to carry on a furious fight for life, and cannot concern himself overmuch as to whether one or two flowers are trodden down in his neighbour's garden.—Prof. Dr. W. Dibelius, W.W.E., p. 5.
FOOTNOTES:
[38] If this does not mean that England was an accessory before the fact to the murder of the Archduke, what does it mean? The passage is quoted with approval by Dr. Prockosch. Englische Politik und englischer Volksgeist, p. 34.
[39] This clergyman's pamphlet, of 24 pp., is one uninterrupted torrent of abuse.
[40] Doubtless a punning perversion of Flugschrift, pamphlet.
[41] It would be easy to cite 501 repetitions of this dogma in almost the same words.
[42] Otherwise—horror of horrors!—Herr Chamberlain himself might not be quite assured of his Germanism.