But these changes, or advances if you will, on the material side, have been accompanied by a moral and material degeneration which has been only very partially counteracted at present by a movement which, though initiated before the period named, has only attained its great development, and hence influenced the national character, since the date in question.
It is a striking fact that in the last forty-four years--the period of the new German Empire--there has been a dearth of originality in all directions.

In the earlier part of the period in question the survivors from the pre-Imperial time continued their work in their several departments, but no new men of the same rank as themselves have arisen, either alongside of them or later to take their places.
The one or two that might be adduced as partial exceptions to what has been above said only prove the rule.

We have had, it is true, a multitude of men, more or less clever _epigoni_, but little else.
Again, it is, I think, impossible to deny that a mechanical hardness and brutality have come over the national character which entirely belie its former traits.

It is a matter of common observation that in the last generation the German middle class has become noticeably coarsened, vulgarized, and blatant.
Again, although I am very far from wishing to attribute the crimes and horrors committed by the German army during the present war to the whole German nation, or even to the _rank and file_ of those composing the army, yet there is no doubt that some blame must be apportioned at least to the latter.

The contrast is striking between the conduct of the German troops during the present war and that of 1870, when they could declare that they were out "to fight French soldiers and not French citizens." Such were the military ethics of bygone generations of German soldiers.