he divine order. He who undertakes to do
good by good will only do evil. It is only in unchaining the power of
evil that one has a chance to realize any good.

From these metaphysical principles questions raised by the idea of
civilization receive most remarkable solutions.

*The Essence of Civilization.*

What is civilization in the German and true sense of the word?

Nations in general, especially the Latin nations, put the essence of
civilization in the moral element of human life, in the softening of
human manners. To those who understand human culture in this way the
Germans will apply the words of Ibsen's Brand, "You wish to do great
things but you lack energy. You expect success from mildness and
goodness." According to the German thought, mildness and goodness are
only weakness and impotence. Force alone is strong and force _par
excellence_ is science, which puts at our disposal the powers of nature
and indefinitely multiplies our strength. Science, then, should be the
principal object of our efforts. From science and from the culture of
scientific intelligence there will necessarily result, by the effect of
Divine grace, the progress of the will and of the conscience which is
called moral progress. It is in this sense that Bismarck said,
"Imagination and sentiment are to science and intelligence what the
tares are to the wheat. The tares threaten to stifle the wheat; that is
why they are cut down and burned." True civilization is a virile
education, aiming at force and implying force. A civilization which
under pretext of humanity and of courtesy enervates and softens man is
fit only for women and for slaves.

Is that to say that the notion of right which men invoke against force
has in reality no meaning, and that a highly civilized people would
disregard it? We must clearly understand the relation which exists
between the notion of right and the notion of force. Force is not the
right. All existing forces do not have an equal right to exist; mediocre
forces in reality have but a feeble share in the Divine force; but in
proportion as a force becomes greater it is more noble. A universally
victorious and all-powerful force would be identical with Divine force
and should, therefore, be obeyed and honored in the same degree. Justice
and force, moreover, belong to two different worlds--the natural and the
spiritual. The former is the phenomenon and symbol of the latter. We
live in a world of symbols; and so