Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/227

 merely as a curious memorial of the past, and to encourage the new age to a vivid knowledge of its greater good fortune.

171. Now, this education is to be national education of the Germans simply; and the great majority of those who speak the German language, and not just the citizens of this or that particular German State only, are to exist as a new race of men. Every German State, therefore, must undertake this task for itself, and independently of all the others. The language in which this matter was first mentioned, in which the means thereto are and will be written, in which the teachers are trained, the one vein of sensuous imagery that permeates all this is common to all Germans. I can scarcely imagine how and with what changes all these means of education, especially to the full extent of our scheme, could be translated into the language of any foreign country so as to seem, not an alien transplanted thing, but a native product arising from the very life of its language. For all Germans alike this difficulty is removed; for them the thing is ready; they need only avail themselves of it.

172. In this respect it is well for us, indeed, that there are various German States separated from one another. What has so often been to our disadvantage may perhaps in this important national business serve to our advantage. The rivalry of several States and the desire to anticipate one another may perhaps bring about what the calm self-sufficiency of the single State would not produce. For it is clear that, whichever German State makes a start in this matter, that State will win for itself the chief place in the respect, love, and gratitude of all, and will rank as the greatest benefactor and the true founder of the nation. It will encourage the others, set them an instructive example, and be their model. It will remove