He felt this weakness to be unworthy of a country whose intellectual achievements were so great as Russia's.

He had no enmity at all against the Germans.
He saw their difficulties, but regretted the spirit in which they were attempting to deal with those difficulties--a spirit hateful to a nature so gentle and a mind so honourable.
He had studied for many years the Balkan problem.

He knew that as Austria weakened, Germany would more and more feel the menace of Russia.
He saw, over and over again, the diplomacy of the Germans thrusting Austria forward to a paramount position in the Balkans, and with his own eyes he saw the Germans in Bulgaria and Turkey fastening their hold upon those important countries.

If Russia weakened, Germany would be master of the world.

A strong Russia might alarm Germany and precipitate a conflict, but it was the world's chief fortress against Prussian domination.
For the sake of Russia he worked for Russia, loving her people and yet seeing the dangers of the Russian character; hoping that a self-respecting Russia might save mankind from the horrors of war and, if war came, the worse horrors of a German world-conquest.