ded to the forces
of the army. Industry was free to develop in all directions; but, from
the first, war was the end in view. In enormous factories, such as the
world had never seen, tens of thousands of workmen toiled in casting
great guns, while by their side, in workshops and laboratories, every
invention which the disinterested genius of neighbouring peoples had
been able to achieve was immediately captured, bent from its intended
use, and converted into an engine of war. Reciprocally, the army and
navy which owed their growth to the increasing wealth of the nation,
repaid the debt by placing their services at the disposal of this
wealth: they undertook to open roads for commerce and outlets for
industry. But through this very combination the movement imposed on
Prussia by her kings, and on Germany by Prussia, was bound to swerve
from its course, whilst gathering speed and flinging itself forward.
Sooner or later it was bound to escape from all control and become a
plunge into the abyss.

For, even though the spirit of conquest knows no limit in itself, it
must limit its ambitions as long as the question is simply that of
seizing a neighbour's territory. To constitute their kingdom, kings of
Prussia had been obliged to undertake a long series of wars. Whether
the name of the spoiler be Frederick or William, not more than one or
two provinces can be annexed at a time: to take more is to weaken
oneself. But suppose that the same insatiable thirst for conquest
enters into the new form of wealth--what follows? Boundless ambition,
which till then had spread out the coming of its gains over indefinite
time, since each one of them would be worth only a definite portion of
space, will now leap all at once to an object boundless as itself.
Rights will be set up on every point of the globe where raw material
for industry, refitting stations for ships, concessions for
capitalists, or outlets for production are seen to exist. In fact, the
policy which had served Prussia so well passed at a bound from the
most calculating prudence to the wildest temerity. Bismarck, whose
common-sense put some restraint on the logic of his principles, was
still averse to colonial enterprises; he said that all the affairs of
the East were not worth the bones of one Pomeranian grenadier. But
Germany, retaining Bismarck's former impulse, went straight on and
rushed forward along the lines of least resistance to east and west:
on the one side lay the