Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/221

 them at once, being accustomed to bear every effort and hardship; his mind, developed in direct perception, is ever alert and self-possessed; in his heart there lives love of the community of which he is a member, of the State, and of his country, and this love destroys every other selfish impulse. The State can summon them and put them under arms when it will, and can be sure that no enemy will defeat them. Formerly, another source of concern and expenditure in wisely governed States was improvement in the management of the State’s resources in its widest sense and in all its branches. In this, owing to the ignorance and helplessness of the lower classes, much care and money were spent in vain, and the matter has everywhere made but little progress. By means of our education the State will get working-classes accustomed from their youth up to thinking about their business, and already able and inclined to help themselves. Now if, in addition, the State can help them in a suitable way, they will understand in a moment, and accept its instruction very gratefully. All branches of the State’s economy will in a short time attain, without much difficulty, a prosperity which no age has yet seen; and the State’s original expenditure will be repaid a thousandfold, if it cares to reckon up and if by that time it has learnt the true fundamental value of things. Hitherto the State has had to do a great deal, and yet has never been able to do enough, for law and police institutions. Convict prisons and reformatories have caused it expense. Finally, the more that was spent on poor-houses, the more they required; indeed, under the prevailing circumstances, they seemed to be institutions for making people poor. In a State which makes the new education universal, the former will be greatly reduced, the latter will vanish entirely. Early discipline