oks, he penned his admirable
_Biology of War_, and managed to have the manuscript sent to
Switzerland, where the first German edition has just been published. The
circumstances in which the book was written have an atmosphere of
mystery and heroism recalling that of the days when the Holy Inquisition
was endeavouring to stifle the thought of Galileo. In the modern world,
the Inquisition of the United States of Europe and America is no less
crushing than was the Holy Inquisition of old. But Nicolai, firmer of
spirit than Galileo, has refused to recant. Last month (September,
1917), the journals of German Switzerland announced that he had been
once more brought to trial, and had been sentenced to five months'
imprisonment by the Danzig court-martial. Thus again does force manifest
its ludicrous weakness, for its unjust decrees merely help to raise a
statue to the man whom force would fain strike down.

* * * * *

The leading characteristic of book and writer is their universality. The
publisher, in a note prefixed to the first edition, tells us that
Nicolai "has a world-wide reputation as a physician, more especially in
the field of cardiac disease"; that "he is a thinker the universality of
whose culture seems almost fabulous in these days of specialisation,
for, while distinguished for his knowledge of neokantian philosophy, he
is equally at home in literature and in dealing with social problems";
that "he is an explorer who has wandered afoot in China, Malaysia, and
even the solitudes of Lapland." Nothing human is foreign to him. In his
book, the chapters on universal history, religious history, and
philosophical criticism, are closely linked with the chapters on
ethnology and biology. What a contrast between this encyclopaedic
thought, with its reminiscences of our eighteenth century France, and
the German savant of caricature, specialist to absurdity--a type which
is often enough encountered in real life!

His vast learning is vivified by a captivating and brilliant
personality, overflowing with feeling and humour. He makes no attempt to
conceal himself behind the mask of a false objectivity. In the
Introduction he hastens to tear off this mask, with which the insincere
thought of our epoch is covered. He treats with contempt what he calls
"the eternal straining for all-round treatment
(Einerseits-Andererseits), the perpetual compromise which, under the
hypocritical pretext of "justi