layed their part. But another cause has been forgotten. It is that
the entire edifice, despite its imposing front, has been mined. Behind
the facade of passive obedience, widespread disillusionment prevails.
Nothing is more striking in Nicolai's story (notwithstanding all his
precautions lest anything he may say should betray his friends to the
vengeance of the authorities) than the way in which he has again and
again been supported and encouraged by the devotion or by the tacit
complicity of those with whom he came into contact. "Men of science,
working men, rankers, and officers," he writes, "begged me to say what
they did not dare to utter themselves." When he was arrested and when
his book was seized, the manuscript was rescued and was smuggled into
Switzerland. By whom? By an official German courier!--When, having fled
from his post, he wished to leave Germany, and when, in the first
instance, he thought of getting out of the country on foot, he was
arrested a hundred yards short of the frontier and was taken before an
elderly captain. "When he asked me my name, and I said, 'I am Professor
Nicolai,' he looked at me long and quizzically. I am doubtful whether he
knew that I was being hunted, but I have the impression that he did
know.... He advised me, in friendly fashion, not again to attempt
crossing the frontier by night, for the frontier patrols were
accompanied by bloodhounds--then he let me go."--Seeing no other way of
escape than by the air route, Nicolai turned--to whom? To an officer in
the flying corps, asking the loan of an aeroplane, for a journey to
Holland or Switzerland. The officer, without turning a hair, replied
that the thing could be done, and that if Nicolai should decide to make
his way to Denmark (which would be much easier) they could start with a
whole air-squadron. In the end, as we know, there was no squadron; but
two aeroplanes and a number of officers participated in the flight from
Neurippin to Copenhagen.--Many similar incidents, though perhaps less
striking than those quoted, serve to show the dissolution of the bonds
between the citizens and the state. The publication of Nicolai's book in
Switzerland, and the subsequent clandestine circulation in Germany of
one hundred copies, brought him into relationships with persons
belonging to all parties in Germany, and enabled him to realise how deep
and passionate was the feeling of hatred diffused throughout all strata
of the population. He a