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most of whom never heard of Machiavelli, operate on this principle.They do not recognize the moral law as binding on them. They lie,cheat at elections, graft, bribe voters, and employ violence whereverit will produce results, and feel no need to hold down their headswhile doing so. What is more, the people clothe their behavior witha kind of tolerance. They are welcomed in the most respectable circles,sit in the front pews at church, are fawned upon by pastors, andcollect for themselves rich majorities at successive elections. HadMachiavelli never lived and Nietzsche been consigned earlier in lifeto the asylum before he invented the myth of the superman, theseward lords in America and war lords in Europe would have gonetheir several ways.It is beyond doubt that Mussolini must have read with glowingpleasure, as indeed he did, the philosophies of Machiavelli andNietzsche which ran so perfectly with his own concepts of virtue.As for Hitler, he doubtless never read either. There had been goingon for a long time a slow erosion of morals, and it may well havebeen that the frank avowals of the Machiavellis and Nietzsches encouragedthe devotees of the new laxity. It must have fallen like astimulating balm upon the dreams of many a moral outlaw in searchof power at some level of the hierarchy to discover that a greatItalian savant and a distinguished German philosopher and poet hadtaught that there was a separate and convenient morality for themas distinguished from the herd.VIII · WarMY AIM has been to show that Germany, like most European countries,had been for forty-four years preceding the war subject tocertain defects seemingly inherent in the economic system; thatduring those years the nation grew in prosperity and wealth but,despite this, poverty remained in large areas and the whole systemwas subjected to depressions at frequent intervals. Coincident withthis was a growing revolt of the masses which consisted, not in any124