otestantism, His Excellency Wirklicher Geheimrath Adolf von Harnack.
Harnack has earned world-wide fame as a bold interpreter of the
Scriptures, but he has refused to countenance those ministers who were
discharged merely because they acted on his teachings. In his
exegesis, Harnack has been the most uncompromising of critics. In his
religious politics, he has been the most tame of courtiers, the most
pliable of diplomats. He has taken infinite liberties with the Sacred
Texts. He has never taken any liberties with the sacred majesty of the
Kaiser.

V.

The confusion of temporal and spiritual power in German Protestantism
brought about two great evils--servility in politics and indifference
in religion. But it also seemed to bring one great compensating
advantage--namely, complete toleration of other creeds. People do not
fight for a creed to which they have become indifferent. Frederick the
Great gave equal hospitality to the free-thinking Voltaire and to the
Jesuits who had been expelled from most Catholic countries.

That compensating advantage of religious toleration seemed to further
the higher intellectual life of the Universities, and in one sense it
did. But it must not be forgotten that neither religious toleration
nor the higher intellectual life ever extended to the province of
politics. The freedom of the Prussian Universities was always limited
by the necessities of the State and the accidents of politics. With
regard to religion and political thought, the Prussian State always
acted on the principle implied in the cynical epigram of Gibbon: "All
religions are equally true to the believer. They are equally false to
the unbeliever, and _they are equally useful to the statesman_." For
three hundred years the Prussian statesmen have attempted to utilize
the Christian religion, and Prussian Christian divines have in fact
proved the most serviceable of tools. Unfortunately, in the process
religion has disappeared from Prussian soil, and with the liberating
influence of the Christian religion has vanished political liberty.

CHAPTER XII

THE GERMAN ENIGMA[22]

[22] Georges Bourdon, "L'Enigme Allemande," Librairie Plon,
Paris.

I.

The present investigation into Franco-German relations conducted on
behalf of the _Figaro_ is the work of one of the ablest publicists of
modern France. It is the work of a good European who wishes to put an
end to the senseless competition in armaments, and