It is to the absence
of this social instinct, to the inability to understand the attitude of
other parties to a discussion, to the unwillingness to appreciate their
point of view, that we may ascribe the failure of German diplomacy, a
failure which has left her almost without a friend in her hour of need.
And success in diplomacy is one of the supreme tests of civilization.
The claim asserted explicity or implicitly in behalf of German culture
seems to be based on the belief that the Germans are leaders in the arts
and in the sciences. So far as the art of war is concerned there is no
need today to dispute the German claim. It is to the preparation for war
that Prussia has devoted its utmost energy for half a century--in fact,
ever since Bismarck began to make ready for the seizing of unwilling
Schleswig-Holstein. And so far as the art of music is concerned there is
also no need to cavil.
But what about the other and more purely intellectual arts? How many are
the contemporary painters and sculptors and architects of Germany who
have succeeded in winning the cosmopolitan reputation which has been the
reward of a score of the artists of France and of half a dozen of the
artists of America?
Since Goethe, Who?
When we consider the art of letters we find a similar condition.
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