Asiatic Quarterly Review (Full Title: The Imperial and Asiatic Quarterly Review, and Oriental and Colonial Record): Volume XIII, No. 26 [‎538v] (201/238)

4 H
Reviews and Notices.
human puppets, the races, remain fixtures ; it is only a question, age by
age, of who pulls the strings. It is rather startling to find a modern
German philosopher saying: “ Die Grundlagen unserer Zivilisation und
eines Teiles unserer Kultur stammen von Babel dem ‘Thore Gottes.’”
Surely that must be rather a figurative than a practical conclusion ? It is
more to the point, however, to learn (what has often been stated before)
that the discovery or the improvement of handwriting was in each case
really the starting-point of all our so-called early civilizations. Then we are
taken through Greek, Phoenician, Jewish, Roman, Persian, and other
history: the main characteristics of the Arian, 1 uranian, Hamitic, and
Semitic families are compared. The superior virtues of gentleness over
brute force are recommended to us, and quite <?« passant we are given
modern examples of our own erratic ways. “Russland hat in Polen und Eng
land in Siidafrika sein Ziel nicht erreicht ” (nothing is said of Poles in Prussia,
or German efforts to balk England’s Ziel). And thus it goes on, right
away through Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, Slavs, Malays, Germans,
Celts, Gipsies, Pan-Germanism, Pan-Latinity, Pan-Slavdom, Pan-Anglo-
Saxondom (an idea which has never even occurred to either British or Ameri
cans), Zionism, Pan-Buddhism, and Pan-Islam. Meanwhile, where do
the Germans come in? Here we come to the goal, and translate our
author : “ The question is not one of world-wide rule, or of the annihila
tion of other peoples, or even of the political union between Germans
separated from the Empire; but only one of a fair local share to be
secured to Germans beyond the seas in the imperial culture at home.”
That seems to be the real meaning. In all parts of the world (he goes on
to say) we find Germans under the influence of non-German culture; we
want a new world of our own, where our own emigrants can develop on
our own lines; and it is undeniable that we must soon take the offensive
in order to assert Pan-Germanism. “ Soli Deutschland zum Hammer
werden, so muss es auch zum Zuschlagen kommen.”
It will be seen that Dr. Wirth’s book has after all a very practical aim ; it
is not all dry philosophy. “ Kultur gehort zur Rasse, wie der Blitz zum
Gewitter.” It is perfectly clear that Germany has the Kultur; why then
has the Blitz held back so long? In a word, Germany has been re
volving these things very seriously in her cultured mind, and she is going
to be a <f Donnerwetter ” hammer in future. Slavs, Anglo-Saxons, and
any other inconvenient Rasse in the way, may either step aside or become
the anvil. The Slavs in particular must look out for squalls, for “ sollen die
Deutschen sich gegen die Slaven behaupten, so ist kein Ausweg, als die
Slaven niederzuhalten.”
It is only fair to the author to state that he has just made the grand
tour in person, for he adduces ocular evidence from Chicago, Moscow,
Turkestan, the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , China, Japan, and Corea; and whether we
agree with him or not, we must at least agree that he is a German of con
siderable energy and originality. His valuable History of Siberia was
reviewed in our issue for October, 1900, since which time he has visited
a great part of Asia, in order to see things for himself.—E. H. Parker.