gle is primarily and essentially a struggle between two
conflicting theories of life and government, which have the Continent of
Europe for their theatre, and of which the Prussians upon the one hand,
the French upon the other, are the protagonists and have been the
protagonists for now more than three generations.

All human conflicts have spiritual roots, and the underlying spiritual
forces which by their contrast have led to this war are the forces of
the old Latin and Christian civilization, with its doctrines of human
equality and the rest, and the North German reaction against that
tradition. Of the first the French are the guardians and have always
been. Of the second the North Germans of the Baltic plain, and
particularly the Prussians, have been the exponents; and one may survey
Europe as a whole and say that the conflict spreads through the minds of
all Europeans, dividing them between those who would prefer their
posterity to live, consciously or unconsciously, under the ancient and
continuous tradition of the civilization inherited from Rome or under
some reversal of that tradition.

That conflict is apparent in every department of life; in the arts, in
the customs of society, and, most important of all, in philosophy.

The direct, immediate, and perceptible issue of the struggle is again
something different. It is an issue between the German-speaking peoples
and the Slav. If you were to ask an acute, well-traveled observer, say a
European diplomat, what, at bottom, this war was, he would answer you
thus:

"This war is an armed conflict provoked by the German-speaking peoples
under the leadership of Prussia against the Slavs under the leadership
of the Russian Empire. It has been provoked by Prussia as leader of the
German peoples, not in a spirit of aggression but in a spirit of
self-defense. The German peoples have for centuries regarded themselves
as the bulwark of European civilization against Slav barbarism. They
believe that the Slav power is rapidly getting so great as to be an
immediate peril. They think it must be fought now or never. On this
account Austria was induced by Prussia to challenge the Russian
Government over the Servian question.

"Either that challenge would be accepted, with the result of war, or
Russia would give way, thereby obtaining for the German peoples a
victory without bloodshed. And Austria would proceed to administrate the
Servian Slavs and to control them--driving a we