land is vested
the dominion of the globe, and England will retain it; she cannot permit
the Russian monster to drink life and mobility from the sea.

"Without England's permission no shot can be fired on the ocean," once
said William Pitt, England's greatest statesman. For many, many
years England has increased her lead, owing to dissensions among the
continental Powers. Almost all wars have, for centuries past, been
waged in the interests of England, and almost all have been incited
by England. Only when Bismarck's genius presided over Germany did the
German Michael become conscious of his own strength, and wage his own
wars.

Are things to come to this pass, that Germany is to crave of England's
bounty--her air and light, and her very daily bread? or does their
ancient vigour no longer animate Michael's arms?

Shall the three Powers who, after Japan's victory over China, joined
hands in the treaty of Shimonoseki, in order to thwart England's aims,
shall they--Germany, France, and Russia--still fold their hands, or
shall they not rather mutually join them in a common cause?

In my mind's eye I see the armies and the fleets of Germany, France, and
Russia moving together against the common enemy, who with his polypus
arms enfolds the globe. The iron onslaught of the three allied Powers
will free the whole of Europe from England's tight embrace. The great
war lies in the lap of the future.

The story that I shall portray in the following pages is not a chapter
of the world's past history; it is the picture as it clearly developed
itself to my mind's eye, on the publication of the first despatch of the
Viceroy Alexieff to the Tsar of Russia. And, simultaneously like a flash
of lightning, the telegram which the Emperor William sent to the Boers
after Jameson's Raid crosses my memory--that telegram which aroused in
the heart of the German nation such an abiding echo. I gaze into the
picture, and am mindful of the duties and aims of our German nation. My
dreams, the dreams of a German, show me the war that is to be, and
the victory of the three great allied nations. Germany, France, and
Russia--and a new division of the possessions of the earth as the final
aim and object of this gigantic universal war.

THE AUTHOR.

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

This volume is the authorised translation of Der Weltkrieg deutsche
Traume (F. W. Vobach and Co., Leipsic). The translator offers no comment
on the day-dream which he reproduces