第74章

"I wish we could manage to leave India and get back to England,"said Mrs.Kennedy."My husband wants to remain in Calcutta to perform his duties, but he cannot stand the climate.Besides, how could we get to Calcutta? Our only chance would be to obtain a Russian passport, enabling us to travel without interference.""My dearest Beatrice," objected her husband."I know that you, like myself, no longer care what happens to us, at a time when such misfortune has overtaken our country.Amidst the general misfortune, what matters our own fate?""I should think," interposed Heideck politely, "that the individual, however deeply he feels the general misfortune, ought not to give way to despair, but should always be thinking of his family as in time of peace.""No!" cried Mr.Kennedy."An Englishmen cannot understand this international wisdom.A German's character is different; he can easily change his country, the Englishman cannot.But you must excuse me," he continued, recollecting himself."You wounded my national honour, and I forgot the situation in which we are.Of course, I had no intention of insulting you.""There is some truth in what you say," replied Heideck, seriously, "but allow me to explain.Our German fatherland, in past centuries, was always the theatre of the battles of all the peoples of Europe.At that time few of the German princes were conscious of any German national feeling; they were the representatives of narrow-minded dynastic interests.Thus our German people grew up without the consciousness of a great and common fatherland.Our German self-consciousness is no older than Bismarck.But we have become large-hearted, generous-minded, by having had to submit to foreign peoples and customs.Our religious feeling and our patriotism are of wider scope than those of others.Hence, Ibelieve that, now that we have been for a generation occupied with our material strength and are politically united, our universal culture summons us to undertake the further development of civilisation, which hitherto has been chiefly indebted to the French and English."The old gentleman did not answer at once.He sat immersed in thought, and a considerable time elapsed before he spoke.

"Anyone can keep raising the standpoint of his view of things.It is like ascending the mountains there.From each higher range the view becomes more comprehensive, while the details of the panorama gradually disappear.Naturally, to one looking down from so lofty a standpoint, all political interests shrivel up to insignificant nothings, and then patriotism no longer exists.But I think that we are first of all bound to work in the sphere in which we have once been placed.A man who neglects his wife and children in the desire to benefit the world by his ideas, neglects the narrowest sphere of his duties.But in that case the welfare of his own people, of his own state, must be for every man the highest objects of his efforts; then only, starting from his own nation, may his wishes have a higher aim.I cannot respect anyone who abandons the soil of patriotism in order to waste his time on visionary schemes in the domain of politics, to wax enthusiastic over universal peace and to call all men brothers.""And yet," said Edith, "this is the doctrine of Christianity.""Of theoretical, not practical Christianity," eagerly rejoined the Englishman."I esteem the old Roman Cato, who took his life when he saw his country's freedom disappearing, and England would never have grown great had not many of her sons been Catos.""Mr.Kennedy, you are proclaiming the old Greek idea of the state,"said Heideck."But I do not believe that the old Greeks had such a conception of the state as modern professors assert, and as ancient Rome practically carried out.Professors are in the habit of quoting Plato, but Plato was too highly gifted not to understand that the state after all consists merely of men.Plato regarded the state not as an idol on whose altar the citizen was obliged to sacrifice himself, but as an educational institution.He says that really virtuous citizens could only be reared by an intelligently organised state, and for this reason he attached such importance to the state.A state is in its origin only the outer form, which the inner life of the nation has naturally created for itself, and this conception should not be upset.The state should educate the masses, in order that not only justice, but also external and internal prosperity may be realised.The Romans certainly do not appear to have made the rearing of capable citizens, in accordance with Plato's idea, the aim of the state; they were modern, like the great Powers of to-day, whose aim it is to grow as rich and powerful as possible.We Germans also desire this, and that is why we are waging this war; but at the same time I assert that something higher dwells in the German national character--the idea of humanity.With us also our ideals are being destroyed, and therefore we are fighting for our 'place under the sun,' in order to protect and secure our ideals together with our national greatness."At this point a servant entered and announced dinner.

At table the conversation shifted from philosophy and politics to art.The ladies tried to cheer the old gentleman and banish his despair.Elizabeth talked of the concerts in Simla and Calcutta, mentioning the great technical difficulties which beset music in India, owing to the instruments being so soon injured by the climate.The moist air of the towns on the coast made the wood swell; the dry air of Central India, on the other hand, made it shrink, which was very injurious to pianos, but especially to violins and cellos.Pianos, with metal instead of wood inside, were made for the tropics; but they had a shrill tone and were equally affected by abrupt changes of temperature.