such professors as Nietzsche longed to see there would at last grow up a genuine 'aristocracy of intellect.'

And here, of course, Nietzsche tended to become remote and utopian. But there is at least nothing remote about his analysis of the causes which led to the decline of Prussian education. His opinion, which he expressed again and again, was that there were three obstacles in the way of true culture, namely, 'the self-interest of business, of the State, and . . . of savants.' Commerce and the State, by working on the professors, had managed to turn a very great number of them into machines for the production of erudition and for the instruction of docile officials. It would be too much to ask one man, even as great a man as Friedrich Nietzsche, for practical suggestions as to the destruction of such a pernicious system. At one time he had hopes that it would destroy itself. In 'Richard Wagner in Bayreuth,' for instance, he stated his belief that the educational institutions of Germany were decaying, and that it only needed a rebellion on the part of the brighter spirits of the nation for the whole fabric to collapse. Naturally such expectations were disappointed; all that Nietzsche could do in the last resort was to wish fervently to see German educational institutions 'remoulded and born again.'

That is really the need of all systems of education, not the least the English system. In this country the demand made on schools and universities to provide the State with officials or commerce with its well-trained slaves has not been quite so insistent as in Prussia; the devitalising of learning has not been carried so far. But there can be no academic circle in Europe or America in regard to which Nietzsche's words would be held superfluous: 'Culture begins in understanding how to treat the quick as something vital.' In this sentence lies the gist of all his warnings and all his aims.

A. W. G. RANDALL.

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Art. 8.-GERMAN METHODS IN ITALY.

1. L'Invasione tedesca in Italia. By Ezio M. Gray. Florence: 'I Libri d'Oggi.' R. Bemporad e figlio, 1915. 2. La Germania alla Conquista dell' Italia. By G. Preziosi. Florence: Libreria della voce, 1915.

3. La Banca Commerciale. By G. Preziosi. Florence: Libreria della voce, April 1915.

4. Banca Commerciale Italiana: Cenni Statistici sul Movimento Economico dell' Italia. Milan: March 1915.

5. La Ricchezza e la Guerra. By Filippo Carli. Milan : Fratelli Treves, 1915.

6. Senatori e Deputati nelle Società Anonime. Milan : F. Bisleri, 1914.

7. Spionaggio Militare Civile e Commerciale. Bragaglia. Milan : Quintieri, 1915.

By A. G.

EDUCATED in a school of anthropological and philological generalisation conceived with an imperialist end in view, it is not surprising that the German should believe his race to be the one pure super-race, and regard neighbouring races, which have admittedly given evidence of progress, as having done so in virtue of a heavy infiltration of German blood. He is led by feelings of bloodrelationship, which are usually not reciprocated, to take an interest in, and feel an affection for, these neighbours ; and he proceeds diligently to regermanise the names of these people and of their countries and towns now unhappily lost to Germany, but which he is taught must, for their own good and happiness, ultimately be reunited to the parent stock. The fact that they may

not desire re-union does not trouble him. He is conscious only of high motives and of the sanctity of his mission, and is determined not to spare himself in his efforts to secure their salvation.

The Englishman is to a slight extent under a delusion of the same type when he hopes to please a foreigner by half shyly suggesting that he might be taken for an Englishman; but he instinctively knows when to give way, and, if the compliment fails, he at once politely desists, silently ascribing the failure to 'ignorantia crassa,' the term invented by charitable theologians to

save good heathens from eternal damnation. The German, without a shred of shyness in his composition, acts quite differently. He regards the failure of his neighbours to recognise their German blood-affinity and their apathy to cultural regeneration as disclosing intellectual and moral sloth, and, confident of his superior mental equipment and of the strength of his will-power, he never doubts that with German industry, thoroughness and pertinacity their ignorance is, to return to theological terms, quite vincible.' Campaigns of 'cultural' penetration with this end in view have been a long time in progress in the Baltic provinces of Russia, in Germanspeaking Austria and Switzerland, in Holland, in Flemishspeaking Belgium, and even in certain districts in Eastern France. About a generation ago a similar campaign was started in Italian-speaking Austria and Switzerland, and in Italy. In Italian-speaking Switzerland and Austria the work of germanisation and denationalisation was done quite openly; and the Schulverein, the Südmark, the Volksbund and the Verein für das Deutschtum im Auslande give the results achieved in their annual reports.

In Italy the campaign had of course to be conducted more cautiously. Even the most self-confident German realised that suddenly to announce to Italians that they were Germans would lead not merely to disaster but to derision; and, not unlike what has taken place in Belgium, the plan of cultural penetration had in view ends more practical and more possible of achievement. The first object aimed at was to undermine the sense of nationality and to shake the idea of unity, and so to weaken the national fibre as to render it less capable of resistance to plausible ethnical theories.

When the campaign began, the reputation of German erudition and German education was at its highest; and Germans were freely consulted in the remodelling of Italian universities and schools on German types which took place at that time. The influence of the Germans went beyond advising on the framework of the educational system; and it was gradually found that Italian students were being taught to regard themselves as descended not from effete Latin ancestors but from the virile German tribes which overthrew the Roman Empire. They

were taught to admire the Gothic and Lombard civilisations, the study of which had undoubtedly been much neglected; they were even taught that the 'Comune,' the glory and most characteristic feature of all Italian civic life, was of German origin; and the obvious superiority of Northern Italy in progress and civilisation was explained to them as being due to the heavier infiltration of German blood. When they left school they found, whatever their political views might be, special appeals made to them to look to Germany for support. If anticlericals, they learned that the Hohenstaufen were the defenders of civil liberty against clerical aggression; and a cult of the Hohenstaufen was industriously encouraged. To mark his solidarity with the movement, the Kaiser came in 1905 to visit their castles, and commissioned Herr Eckhardt to write the usual monumental work on their history and architecture. If clericals, Italians were told that Germany was the only bulwark against those pernicious liberal and democratic doctrines which must inevitably lead to irreligion. In this propaganda Germany found support in many German houses of monastic orders; and it was perhaps more than a mere coincidence that, in his pilgrimage to the castles of the Hohenstaufen, the Kaiser did not forget Father Krüger of the Abbey of Montecassino, which the Kaiser has enriched with a series of frescoes exhibiting German taste. The German campaign was carried on with extraordinary diligence in the Press; and Italians read everywhere of the great strength, wealth, prosperity and erudition of the German

race.

The trouble of the German is that his thoroughness, the quality of which he is most proud, has the inherent defect of taking him too far, and usually ends in making him ridiculous. Three years ago the Italian public was startled by the publication in Leipzig of L. Woltmann's 'Die Germanen und die Renaissance in Italien.' Woltmann professed to have discovered from investigations into the ancestry of the great Italians of the Renaissance that 130 out of 150 of the most famous were of pure German descent. He found, from evidence which appeared to him reliable, that they were dolichocephalous, fair in complexion, high in stature, of north-German cast of countenance, with light-coloured eyes and blond hair.

The remaining twenty he stated to be of mixed German and other descent. Philology is always a useful weapon in the hands of a German professor, and Herr Woltmann tells us that Ghiberti was certainly Wilbert, Buonarroti Bonroth; that the castle of Vinci from which Leonardo took his name must have belonged to a German knight of the name of Winke; that Cacciaguida is a corruption of Katzwitt; and he produces a great deal more evidence of equal weight.

The industry and energy of the German in the accumulation of material is prodigious, but his use of it is sometimes futile. Woltmann may not be of great importance, but his views were supported by other German writers, notably by the irrepressible Houston Chamberlain, whom the Kaiser has recommended to his subjects as a serious writer. About the same time the attention of Italians was drawn to the publication of the PanGerman map for 1950 (Der Grossdeutsche Bund und Mittel-Europa um das Jahr 1950'), which showed that the new Great German Confederation would at that date include not only Trieste and the Trentino, but a great part of Venetia and a considerable portion of Lombardy. To strengthen the desire of German schoolboys for this rectification of frontier, the names of the towns in the districts to be annexed were germanised in the 'Handbuch des Deutschtums im Auslande' (edition for the Schulverein); e.g. Brescia becomes Welschbrixen, Verona Bärn, Udine Hasfeld, Treviso Tarvis, and Castelfranco Freikastell. It came as a shock to Italy to find its correct and loyal ally permitting its youth to be brought up under the influence of such publications.

Germans always underrate the intelligence and knowledge of the people with whom they have to deal. Italians were quite well aware that, according to the recognised anthropological criteria of cranial index, coloration and stature, Italy is, of all countries in Europe, the one most free from any admixture of German race; and that the very few invaders who may have been of genuine Teutonic origin must have been easily absorbed. They also knew that the pretence of modern Germany to be of pure Germanic race is an imposture, and that it is not even preponderatingly Germanic. This is well known to the rulers, who do not permit the Army authorities