Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/250

 their actions, and what would they proclaim to all the world as their assumption? They would acknowledge that they believed we were ruled over by an enemy of mankind, by a very base and petty Principle, alarmed by every stirring of independent strength and unable to hear of morality, religion, or ennoblement of souls without anxiety; because nothing but the degradation of men, their stupor, and their vices would make his position safe and give him hope of maintaining himself. With this belief of theirs, which would add to our other miseries the crushing shame of being ruled over by such a man as this, are we now forthwith to proclaim ourselves in agreement, and are we to act in accordance with it before we have clear proof that it is true?

Let us suppose the worst: that they are in the right and not we, who show by our action that we make the former assumption. Is, then, the human race really to be degraded and to go under as a favour to one man who profits by the fall and to those who are afraid? Is one, whose heart bids him do it, not to be allowed to warn them of destruction? Suppose, not only that they were in the right, but that one should resolve, in the sight of this generation and of posterity, to admit that they were right and to deliver aloud on one’s self the judgment just expressed; what, then, would be the greatest ultimate consequence for the unwelcome warner? Do they know anything greater than death? This awaits us all in any case, and from the beginning of humanity noble souls have defied the danger of death for the sake of less important matters—for when was there ever a higher matter than the present one? Who has the right to intervene in an undertaking that is begun with full knowledge of this danger?

195. Should there be such people—though I hope not—