that European idealism crashed to ruin in 1914.
The German writer's conclusion (which I am content to record without
comment), is that "we have proof that ordinary idealistic morality,
whether Kantian or Christian, is absolutely useless, for it is unable to
lead any of those who profess it to act morally." In view of the
manifest impossibility of founding moral action upon a purely idealistic
basis, Nicolai considers that our first duty is to seek some other
basis. He wishes that Germany, schooled by her ignominious fall, by her
"moral Jena," should work at this task whose fulfilment is so
indispensable to mankind--should work at it for herself even more than
for any other nation, seeing that her need is the greatest. "Let us
see," he says, "if it be not possible to find in nature, scientifically
studied, the conditions of an objective ethic, of an ethic that shall be
independent of our personal sentiments, good or bad, always
vacillating."

* * * * *

In the first part of the volume we have learned that war is a
transitional phenomenon in human evolution. What, then, is the true and
eternal principle of humanity? Is there such a principle? Is there a
higher imperative, valid for all men alike?

Yes, answers Nicolai. This higher imperative is the very law of life,
which governs the entire organism of humanity. Natural law has only two
bases, only two which can never be shaken: the individual, separately
considered; and the human universality. All intermediaries, like the
family and the state, are organised groupings,[61] subject to change,
and they do actually change with changing customs; they are not natural
organisms. Egoism and altruism, the two powerful sentiments which give
life to our moral world, acting therein like the contrasted forces of
positive and negative electricity, are the respective expressions of the
individual and of the collectivity. Egoism is the natural outflow of our
individuality. Altruism owes its existence to the obscure recognition
that we are parts of a united organism, humanity.

In the second half of his book Nicolai undertakes to throw light upon
this obscure realisation, and to establish it upon a scientific
foundation. He undertakes to show that humanity is no mere abstraction,
but a living reality, an organism that can be subjected to scientific
observation.

In this study, the poetical intuition of the ancient philosophers is
interestingly linked