It will take a very appreciable space of time even in the case of a populace so accessible to new habits of thought as the German people are by virtue of their slight percentage of illiteracy, the very large proportion engaged in those modern industries that constantly require some intelligent insight into mechanistic facts, the density of population and the adequate means of communication, and the extent to which the whole population is caught in the web of mechanically standardised processes that condition their daily life at every turn.

As regards their technological situation, and their exposure to the discipline of industrial life, no other population of nearly the same volume is placed in a position so conducive to a rapid acquirement of the spirit of the modern era.

But, also, no other people comparable with the population of the Fatherland has so large and well-knit a body of archaic preconceptions to unlearn.

Their nearest analogue, of course, is the Japanese nation.
In all this there is, of course, no inclination to cast a slur on the German people.

In point of racial characteristics there is no difference between them and their neighbours.