was our nation’s sad fate to have to fight for its life under a Chancellor who was a philo¬ sophizing weakling. If we had been led by some robust man of the people, instead of a BethmannHollweg, the Grenadier private’s heroic blood would not have been shed in vain. Moreover, the exag¬ geratedly highbrow qualities of the material from which our leaders came provided the best possible allies for the scoundrels of November. By its shameful manner of choking the national welfare which was entrusted to it, instead of furthering it by might and main, that intellectuality created the conditions which made the success of the other side a certainty.
The Roman Catholic Church sets an example in this connection, from which much may be learned. The celibacy of its priests obliges it to draw the suc¬ ceeding generation for the priesthood not from its own ranks, but from the mass of the people. Most people are unaware of this particular significance of celibacy. It is the foundation of the vigorous strength which is instinct in that ancient institution.
It will be the duty of the national State in its educative capacity to see to it that there is perpetual renewal of the intellectual class by fresh blood from below. It is obligatory on the State to select with the utmost care and exactitude from the whole sum of its nationals all human material with obvious natural talent, and apply it in the service of the State. In our world, as it is to-day, this appears to be impossible.
All work has a twofold value, the purely material and the ideal. Its material value rests in the impor¬ tance of the work done, measured not so much by its material aspect as by its essential needfulness ; whereas, ideally speaking, there is equality among men, from the moment that each individual in his own sphere, whatever that may be, exerts himself to do his best. The estimate of a man’s value must depend on the way in which he performs the task entrusted to him by the community. For the labour of the individual is only the means, not the object, of his existence.