Chapter IV: Friendships
“FOR all purposes of a resident ambassador, I hear persons extensively and well acquainted among our foreign embassies at this date declare, That a well-selected Times reporter or ‘ own correspondent ’ ordered to reside in foreign capitals, and keep his eyes open, and (though sparingly) his pen going, would in reality be much more effective;—and surely we see well he would come to a good deal cheaper!
Chapter V: Enemies
The people is a beast of muddy brain
That knows not its own strength, and therefore stands
Loaded with wood and stone; the powerless hands
Of a mere child guide it with bit and rein;
One kick would be enough to break the chain.
But the beast fears, and what the child demands
It does; nor its own terror understands,
Confused and stupified by bugbears vain.
Most wonderful! With its own hand it ties
Chapter VI: Panicmongers
“AND he will lift up an ensign to the nations from afar, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:
“None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:
“Whose arrows are sharp, and all their bows bent, their horses’ hoofs shall be counted like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind:
Chapter VII: Insurance
“MOREOVER, neither should a city be thought happy, nor should a legislator be commended, because he has so trained the people as to conquer their neighbours; for in this there is a great inconvenience; since it is evident that upon this principle every citizen who can will endeavour to procure the supreme power in his own city; which crime the Lacedæmonians accuse Pausanias of, though he enjoyed such great honours.
Chapter VIII: Apostles of Peace
“THAT friendly relations may ultimately be established between England and Germany without the arbitrament of war I earnestly hope and occasionally believe. It depends mainly on the English people. They must not allow themselves to rest in self-complacency, nor, in ignorant nervousness as to the susceptibilities of foreign powers, slacken their efforts to increase the present power of the navy.
Chapter IX: “Not in the Public Interest”
“SOMEWHERE there are still people and herds, but not with us, my brethren: with us there are states.
The state? What is that? Well! now open your ears, for now I deliver my sentence on the death of peoples.
The state is called the coldest of all cold monsters. And coldly it lieth; and this lie creepeth out of its mouth: ‘I, the state, am the people.’
It is a lie! Creators they were who created the peoples and hung one belief and one love over them; thus they served life.
Chapter X: The Power to War
Gone By and utter Nothing are all one;
Why, then, does this creating still go on?
Gone by? What means it?—What a sorry trade!
Making, and making nothing of what’s made.
And then this nothing evermore we see
Making pretence a something still to be.
So on it goes, the same dull circle spinning—
’Twere better with the Eternal Void beginning!
—Goethe.
Chapter XI: The Work of Diplomatists
“THERE is another great gulf which separates the differences between Austria and Russia, howsoever they may be decided, from the affairs of the Western Powers. Britain and Germany, Italy and France are at peace. They desire peace; they need peace; there is no ground of quarrel between them—absolutely none.
Chapter XII: A Game of Chess
“IN England men will learn with amazement and incredulity that war is possible over the question of a Servian port, or even over the larger issues which are said to lie behind it. Yet that is whither the nations are blindly drifting. Who, then, makes war? The answer is to be found in the Chancelleries of Europe, among the men who have too long played with human lives as pawns in a game of chess, who have become so enmeshed in formulas and the jargon of diplomacy that they have ceased to be conscious of the poignant realities with which they trifle.
Chapter XIII: The Foreign Secretary’s Statement
“IF generous honesty, valour, and plain dealing be the cognizance of thy family, or characteristic of the country, hold fast such inclinations sucked in with thy first breath, and which lay in the cradle with thee. Fall not into transforming degenerations, which under the old name create a new nation.”
—Sir Thomas Browne.
