nce where all
knowledge and ideas which concern human life are concentrated is
history. To this science our epoch has devoted a veritable worship. Now
the Germans have drawn from history two lessons of the highest
importance. One is that history is not only the succession of events,
which mark the life of humanity, it is the judgment of God upon the
rivalries of peoples. Everything which is wishes to be, and to endure,
struggle, and impose itself. History tells us which are the men and the
things Providence has elected. The sign of that election is success. To
subsist, grow, conquer, dominate is to prove that one is the confidant
of the thought of Providence, the dispenser of the power of Providence.
If one people appears designated by history to dominate the others then
that people is the vicegerent of God upon earth, is God Himself, visible
and tangible for His creatures.

The second lesson which German erudition has drawn from the study of
history is that the actual existence of a people charged with
representing God is not a myth, that such a people exists and that the
German people is that people. From the victory of Hermann (Arminius)
over Varus in the forest of Teutoburg in the year 9 A.D., the will of
God is evident. The Middle Ages show it, and if in modern times Germany
has appeared to efface herself it is because she was reposing to collect
her force and strike more heavily. When she was not obviously the first,
she was so virtually. It was in 1844 that Hoffmann von Fallersleben
composed the national song, _Deutschland ueber alles, ueber alles in der
Welt_. Germany over all, Germany over all the world, Germany extending
from the Meuse to the Niemen, from the Adige to the Belt.

Not only is Germany the elect of Providence but the sole elect, and
other nations are rejected. The sign of her election is the annihilation
of the three legions of Quinctilius Varus, and her eternal task is to
revenge herself for the insolence of the Roman General. "We shall give
battle to Hermann and we shall avenge ourselves, "_und wollen Rache
haben_." Thus ran the celebrated national song. _Der Gott, der Eisen
wachsen liess_.

*Germanism and God.*

German civilization has developed in antagonism with the Greco-Roman
civilization. To adopt the former was on the part of God to reject the
latter. Therefore German consciousness, realized without hindrance in
all its force, is but the Divine consciousness. _Deutschtum_ = God and