Page:Addresses to the German nation.djvu/277

 something even greater. He must have a very good opinion of himself who believes that he can pay court acceptably in this way; and the one who is praised must have a very low opinion of himself if he finds pleasure in such tributes.

213. No! Good, earnest, steady German men and countrymen, far from our spirit be such a lack of understanding, and far be such defilement from our language, which is formed to express the truth. Let us leave it to foreigners to burst into jubilation and amazement at every new phenomenon, to make a new standard of greatness every decade, to create new gods, and to speak blasphemies in order to please human beings. Let our standard of greatness be the old one: that alone is great which is capable of receiving the ideas which always bring nothing but salvation upon the peoples, and which is inspired by those ideas. But, as regards the living, let us leave the verdict to the judgment of posterity.