The  combination,  which  was  not
possessed  by  individuals,  was  pos-
sessed by  all  together.  But  there
was,  at  the  time,  a  still  weightier  rea-
son why  the  various  German  king-
doms and  principalities  should  com-
bine in  the  form  of  a  federation,
however  much  their  mutual  antipa-
thies and  jealousies  might  and  did
stand  in  the  way.  This  reason  was
that  the  individual  States  had  for
centuries  been  the  cockpit  of  Euro-
pean wars,  the  victims  first  of  this
conquering  army,  then  of  that,  the
prize  of  victories  in  which  they  had
no  share,  and  the  goal  of  ambitions
in  which  they  had  no  interest.  The
necessity  for  the  foundation  of  the
present  Federal  Gorman  Empire  lay
much  less  in  the  bickerings  and  quar-
rels of  the  individual  States  now  in-
cluded in  the  Federation  than  in  the
quarrels  and  ambitions  of  the  neigh-
boring powers,  the  ambitions  and
rivalries  of  foreign  princes  and  of
foreign  representatives  of  various
creeds.  Perhaps  the  most  illuminat-
ing illustration  of  the  conditions  of
life  In  tlie  German  country  which
ultimately  made  the  Empire  a  neces-
sity is  to  be  found  in  a  book  called
"Slmplicius  Simplicissimus,"  retail-
ing the  adventures  of  a  farmer's  son
In  the  period  of  the  Thirty  Years'
War,  and  recently  published  In  Eng-
lish. The  castles  of  western  Ger-
many have  for  the  most  part  been
blown  up  or  burned,  not  by  the
troops  of  opposing  political  factions,
Roundhead  or  Cavalier,  White  Rose
or  Red,  but  by  foreign  aggressors,
T"»^«  rnv-"oH  no-m-nv  from  ^the
Rhine  to  the  Vistula,  from  the  Baltic


to  the  Giant  mountains.  That  they
might  live  at  last  in  peace,  might  de-
velop their  own  resources  by  mutual
assistance,  the  States  of  modern  Ger-
many, led  by  iron-handed  Prussia,
came  to  found  the  modern  Empire.
