Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/267

 as we are, even though that may be an offence of this kind; nay, let us become, if we can, even stronger and more determined, as we ought to be. It is the custom to tell us that we are sorely lacking in quickness and ease and grace, and that we grow too serious, too heavy, and too ponderous over everything. Let us not be in the least ashamed of this, but rather strive to deserve the accusation more and more fully and to an ever greater extent. Let us confirm ourselves in this resolve by the conviction, which is easily to be attained, that in spite of all the trouble we take, we shall never do right in the eyes of our accusers, unless we cease entirely to be ourselves, which is the same thing as ceasing to exist at all. There are certain peoples who, while preserving their own special characteristics and wishing to have them respected by others, yet recognize the special characteristics of other peoples, and permit and encourage their retention. To such peoples the Germans belong without a doubt; and this trait is so deeply marked in their whole life in the world, both past and present, that very often, in order to be just both to contemporary foreign countries and to antiquity, they have been unjust to themselves. Then there are other peoples, whose ego is so closely wrapped up in itself that it never allows them the freedom to detach themselves for the purpose of taking a cool and calm view of what is foreign to them, and who are therefore compelled to believe that there is only one possible way of existence for a civilized human being, and that is always the way which some chance or other has indicated to them alone at the time; the rest of mankind all over the world have no other destiny, in their opinion, than to become just what they are, and ought to be extremely grateful to them if they take upon themselves the trouble of moulding them in this way. Between peoples of the