Abuse of Germany never occupied his mind, which was sorrowfully engaged in striving to comprehend the spiritual conditions of the German people: he realized, that is to say, that we were not fighting an enemy who could be shouted down or made ashamed by abusive epithets, but that we were opposing a spirit whose anger and temper were entirely different from our own, and therefore a spirit which must be understood if we were to conquer it.

It was not merely the armies of Germany which must be defeated, it was the soul of Germany which had to be converted.

He saw this clearly: he never ceased to work to that end; but he failed to take the nation into his confidence and the public never understood what he was after.

A fanatic would have left the nation in no doubt of his purpose.
Every now and then he has half let the nation see what was in his mind.
For example, he has taken those illuminating, those surely inspired, words of Edith Cavell as the text for more than one address--_Patriotism is not enough_.

But beautiful and convincing as these addresses have been, their spirit has always had the wistful and _piano_ tones of philosophy, never the consuming fervour of fanaticism.