that German culture is something different from and superior to
such culture (if it be worthy of the name) as is possessed by other
countries. All these beliefs I set out in my booklet entitled, "Der
Lorbeerkranz," which I humbly and with the most profound heart's
devotion dedicated to your august and glorious Majesty. Did you, I
wonder, deign to cast your Imperial eyes on this effort of my pen? How
well I remember obtaining my first copy of the book on the happy day
that saw its publication. It seemed printed in letters of gold, and,
filled with high yearnings and expectations, I took it home to my
beloved Anna. We read it aloud together, turn and turn about, with
laughter and applause and tears, for we saw therein the foundation of
fame.

So, at the war's beginning, I shouted with the rest for my KAISER and my
country, knowing that the war was just and that we should end by
annexing England's colonies, after destroying her armies and her ships,
and those of France and Russia into the bargain.

Well, that is already, as it seems to me, a thousand years ago, and I
must admit that at that time I did not consider it possible that I
myself with all my weight of learning as well as my regulation knapsack
should be marching about, or lying in a trench on the plains of
Flanders, divided by a few hundred yards from English soldiers, who have
in their hands rifles and bayonets, and know how to use them. In the
intervals of firing, as we lie there, a man has time to think, and it is
wonderful how clear his ideas become in such conditions. Some of us do
not think or think only what they are told. Poor simple fellows, they
still believe they are even now at the gates of Paris, and that
to-morrow is the day appointed for the entrance; whereas I know that,
having been close to Paris in a mad rush, our armies have since
retreated day after day.

But all this happened before I myself had to join the fight with the
older men. Now I know that the English and the French have much to say
for themselves, and, in any case, that it is plain nonsense--I beg Your
Majesty's pardon for using this word, but it is there and I will not
strike it out--it is plain nonsense to believe that the good God who has
made us all has had any interest in making our Germans out of better
clay than that which He has used for other men. I cannot even make an
exception in the case of your Imperial Majesty's own self. Thus do my
thoughts run in the trenches duri