In  all  the  manifestoes  of  eminent  Germans
we  find  the  same  mood  ;  they  almost  use
the  same  language,  as  if  it  were  always  one
person  speaking  and  expressing  the  same
obsession  ;  and  we  see  clearly  that  this  mood
is  not  admirable  merely  because  a  whole
nation  is  possessed  by  it,  nor  even  because  it
moves  all  the  individuals  of  that  nation  to
self-sacrifice.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  mood  to  be
judged  in  the  nation  just  as  it  would  be
judged  in  an  individual  ;  and  when  two
nations  become  possessed  by  moods  of
antagonism  to  each  other,  they  also  are  to


70      MORE   THOUGHTS   ON   THE  WAR

be  judged  as  if  they  were  individuals,  and
will  be  so  judged  by  posterity.
Further,  a  national  mood  by  reason  of  its
very  intensity  may  be  a  national  danger,
just  as  in  an  individual  it  would  be  a  danger
to  him.  If  it  is  the  instinct  of  self-preserva-
tion that  drives  nations  to  such  excesses,
that  instinct,  freed  from  self-criticism,  must
work  against  itself.  A  lunatic,  in  the  terrors
of  persecution  mania,  may  throw  himself
out  of  window  ;  and  a  nation,  though  com-
posed of  sane  individuals,  may  rush  to  self-
destruction  like  a  lunatic,  and  for  the  same
reason.  This  collective  madness  overpowers
individual  sanity  ;  it  does  not  make  Pro-
fessor Harnack  and  the  rest  merely  silent
from  despair  of  reasoning  with  it,  it  makes
them  talk  its  own  language,  as  if  they  had
become  its  mouthpieces  and  all  their  personal
wisdom  were  changed  into  its  folly.
