submissive servility hopelessly pervaded the masses, and
even the best had lost all social and national feeling, all
sense of being part of a greater body.... The luxurious life
and the arrogance of the ruling classes were accepted as a
matter of course, one might say as a divine institution.
Thus those traits of character, which had come to light
under the cruel stress of the Thirty Years War, fostered by
the rule of despotism and the worst vices, took deeper root.
To these belong that greed for social position, for titles
and the smiles of the great; servility towards those who
hold a higher position as bearers of official titles and
dignity, a fear of publicity, above all a rather remarkable
inclination to a peevish, petty, and sceptical attitude as
regards the knowledge and ability of others. The exaltation
of the position of the prince extended to his Court and his
officials, as well as to the nobility, which had long since
become a Court nobility."

But absolutism had to go with the changes in human thought under the
influence of Rationalism, which brought with it the idea of the State,
not the absolute prince, as ruler. This idea was embodied in the
_Rechtstaat_, or State based on law, which was introduced by Frederick
the Great, the "first servant of the State." The State, he said,
exists for the sake of the citizens. "One must be insane," he wrote,

"to imagine that men should have said to one of their
equals, 'We will raise you so that we may be your slaves, we
will give you the power to guide our thoughts according to
yours.' They rather said: 'We need you in order to execute
our laws, that you show us the way, and defend us. But we
understand that you will respect our liberties.'"

The _Rechtstaat_ exists in Germany to the present day, the Emperor is
at the head of it, and the people are content to live within its
confines. It is not, as has been seen, coterminous with the whole
liberty of the subject, but is yet a vast bundle of rights and
obligations which in public, and much of private, life leaves as
little as possible to the unaided or undirected intelligence or
goodwill of the citizen. It is an exaggeration, but still expresses a
popular feeling even in Germany itself--and certainly describes an
impression made on the Anglo-Saxon--to say that outside this bundle of
laws and regulations, wh