"In talking with you my impulse is to assume what I feel in my
heart--the certainty of German defeat, but I must not do that, although
all the letters which I get from the front and from Paris express a
growing confidence in the victory of the Allies.
"But it is too early to attempt intelligent detailed prophecy as to the
effect of the great struggle upon the world's philosophy, or upon any
other phase of its intellectual development.
"Almost certainly, however, a reaction against certain Germanic
influences will be apparent after the war ends, for the world will not
want ever to risk repetition of the horrors of this struggle, and it
will be plain that they were the inevitable fruit of Germany's attempt
at intellectual domination.
"This German assumption was due, largely, to their victory in 1870, but
it went far beyond the bounds of reason, far beyond the fields in which
German achievement really had established legitimate supremacy.
"The momentum of victory often has led humanity into excess. It led
Germany into excessive claims of social superiority and into an
excessive assumption of intellectual supremacy.
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