t," said he, "you talked to us of liberty: we liked to hear
that, and our good wishes were rather for your armies than those of the
King of Prussia and Emperor of Austria; you made war upon our soldiers
and not upon us; you upheld ideas which every one thought great and
just, and so you did not quarrel with peoples but only with their
masters. To-day it is very different; all Germany is flying to arms;
all her youth are rising, and it is we who talk of Liberty, of Virtue
and of Justice to France. He who has them on his side is ever the
stronger, because he has against him only the evil-minded of all
nations, and has with him youth, courage, great ideas,--everything
which lifts the soul above thoughts of self, and which urges man to
sacrifice his life without regret. You have long had all this, but you
wanted it no longer. Long ago, I well remember, your generals fought
for Liberty, slept on straw, in barns, like simple soldiers; they were
men of might and terror; now they must have their sofas; they are more
noble than our nobles and richer than our bankers. So it comes to pass
that war, once so grand--once an art, a sacrifice--once devotion to
one's country--has become a trade, for sale at more than one market.
It is, to be sure, very noble yet, since epaulettes are yet worn, but
there is a difference between fighting for immortal ideas and fighting
merely to enrich one's self.

"It is now our turn to talk of Liberty and Country; and this is the
reason why I think this war will be a sorrowful one for you. All
thinking men, from simple students to professors of theology, are
rising against you in arms. You have the greatest general of the world
at your head, but we have eternal justice. You believe you have the
Saxons, the Bavarians, the Badeners and the Hessians on your side;
undeceive yourselves; the children of old Germany well know that the
greatest crime, the greatest shame, is to fight against our brothers.
Let kings make alliances; the people are against you in spite of them;
they are defending their lives, their Fatherland--all that God makes us
love and that we cannot betray without crime. All are ready to assail
you; the Austrians would massacre you if they could, notwithstanding
the marriage of Marie Louise with your Emperor; men begin to see that
the interests of Kings are not the interests of all mankind, and that
the greatest genius cannot change the nature of things."

Thus would the pastor disc