Page:Nietzsche the thinker.djvu/482

466 no more—they have something better to do than to think; the "great politics" swallows up all earnestness for really great things. The era of Bismarck is the era of German Verdummung. Indeed, with the new haste and tension, Nietzsche fears a premature old age for the Germans —as for Americans. And yet there is a natural seriousness, depth, and capacity for great passion in the German people. They have the masculine virtues, more so than any other people in Europe; soberness (Mässigung), too, which needs more a spur than a brake. Wagner is quoted approvingly: "The German is angular and awkward, when he attempts to be mannered, but he is grand (erhaben) and superior to all, when he is on fire." He is strong in industry, in endurance, and in capacity for a cold-blooded critical view of things; on account of these qualities German philology and the German military system are ahead of anything in Europe. Although between the German of today and the original "blond German beast" there is little connection, whether of blood or ideas, Germans are still great enough to awaken anxiety in Europe, and the deep injury to