It was undoubtedly the pretext sought by Germany for starting the great war.

Whether it may not have been carefully planned to serve that object and the Serbian Prinzip, employed as a tool to bring it about, is not so certain.
Several years prior to the war, the celebrated Russian, Tolstoy, gave utterance to a remarkable prophecy.

Tolstoy was a mystic, and it was not unusual for him to go into a semi-trance state in which he professed to peer far into the future and obtain visions of things beyond the ken of average men.

The Russian czar was superstitious and it is said that the German emperor had a strong leaning towards the mystic and psychic.

In fact, it has been stated that the Kaiser's claim to a partnership with The Almighty was the result of delusions formed in his consultations with mediums--the modern descendants of the soothsayers of olden times.
Tolstoy stated that both the Czar and the Kaiser desired to consult with him and test his powers of divination.