Every time the demand for peace has reached a certain pitch and was no longer to be contained, it's led
straight
to war!
Musil - Man Without Qualities - v2
"
"Glad to hear it! " Meseritscher answered.
If the news is to be reported with speed and confidence, today's
news should not be too different from yesterday's, or what one knows already. Even genius is no exception: real, acknowledged genius, that
1086 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
is, whose significance can be readily assessed in its own time. Not so the genius that is not instantly recognized by all and sundry! This sort of genius has something distinctly ungenial about it, a quality, more- over, that is not even solely its own, so that it is possible to misjudge it in every respect. Privy Councillor Meseritscher had a solid inventory of geniuses, which he tended with care and attention, but he was not keen on adding new items. The older and more experienced he grew, in fact, the more he had even formed the habit of regarding any ris- ing artistic genius, especially in his neighboring field of literature, merely as a frivolous interference with his own work of reportage, and he hated it in all righteousness until it became ripe for inclusion in his lists of"those present. " At that time Feuermaul still had a long way to go, and his way had yet to be smoothed for him. Privy Coun- cillor Meseritscher was not quite sure he was in favor.
"They say he's supposed to be a great poet," Tuzzi repeated hesi- tantly, and Meseritscher retorted firmly: "Who says so? The critics on the book page? I ask you, Section Chief, what difference does that make? The specialists say these things, and what of it? Many of them say the opposite. We've even known the same experts to say one thing one day and something else the next. Does it really matter what they say? A real literary reputation has to have reached the illiterates; only then can you depend on it! Would you like to know what I think? What a great man does, apart from his arriving and leaving, is nobody's business! "
He had worked himself up into a gloomy fervor, and his eyes were glued to Tuzzi's. Tuzzi gave up and said nothing.
"What's really going on here this evening, Section Chief? " Mese- ritscher asked him.
Tuzzi smiled absently and shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing. Nothing, really. A little ambition. Have you ever read any of Feuer- maul's books? "
"I know what he writes about: peace, friendship, goodness, et cetera. "
"So you don't think too much of him? " Tuzzi said.
"Good Lord! " Meseritscher started wriggling. "Who am I to say . . . ? " At this point Frau Drangsal came bearing down on them, and Tuzzi had to take a courteous step or two in her direction. Mese- ritscher saw the chance to slip into a breach he had espied in the
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1087
circle around Count Leinsdorf, and seizing it before anyone else could waylay him, he dropped anchor beside His Grace.
Count Leinsdorf was talking with the Minister and some other men, but as soon as Meseritscher had paid them all his devout re- spects, His Grace turned slightly and drew him aside.
"Meseritscher," he said intently. "Promise me that there will be no misunderstandings; the gentlemen of the press never seem to know what to write. Now then: Nothing whatsoever has changed in our position since the last time. Something may change. We don't know about that. For the time being there must be no interference. So please, even if one of your colleagues should ask you, remember that this whole evening here is nothing more than a private party given by Frau Tuzzi. . "
Meseritscher's eyelids slowly and solicitously conveyed that he had understood these top-level commands. And since one confidence deserves another, he moistened his lips, which then gleamed as his eyes should have done, and asked: "And what about Feuermaul, Your Excellency, if I may be permitted to ask? "
"Why on earth shouldn't you? " Count Leinsdorf replied in sur- prise. "There's nothing whatever to be said about Feuermaul! He was invited because Baroness Wayden wouldn't leave us in peace until he was! What else should there be? Perhaps you know some- thing? "
Up to this point Privy Councillor Meseritscher had not been in- clined to take the Feuermaul question too seriously, but regarded it as one ofthe many social rivalries he ran into every day. But now that even Count Leinsdorf denied so energetically that there was any- thing in it, Meseritscher had to think again, and came to the conclu- sion that something important was in the wind. "What can they be up to now? " he brooded as he wandered through the throng, pondering one by one the most daring possibilities of domestic and foreign pol- icy. But after a while he decided abruptly: "There's probably nothing to it," and refused to let himself be distracted any longer from his job of reporting the news.
For however much it appeared to be in conflict with his mission in life, Meseritscher did not believe in great events; indeed, he did not hold with them. When one believes that one is living in a very impor- tant, very splendid, and very great period, one does not welcome the
1o88 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
idea that anything especially important, splendid, and great has yet to happen in it. Meseritscher was no alpinist, but if he had been he would have said that his attitude was as correct as it was to put look- out towers on middling-high mountains but never on the really high peaks. Since such analogies did not occur to him, it was enough to register a certain uneasiness and make up his mind that he would not mention Feuermaul in his column at all, not even by name.
A GREAT EVENT IS IN THE MAKING. MEETING SOME OLD ACQUAINTANCES
Ulrich, who had been standing beside his cousin while she was speaking with Meseritscher, asked her as soon as they were alone for a moment:
''I'm sorry I arrived too late; how was your first encounter with La Drangsal? "
Diotima raised her heavy eyelashes to give him a single world- weary glance and dropped them again.
"Delightful, of course. She'd been to see me. We'll arrange some- thing or other this evening. As ifit made any difference! "
"You see! " Ulrich said, in the tone of their old conversations, as if to draw a final line under all that.
Diotima turned her head and gave her cousin a quizzical look.
"I told you already," Ulrich said. "Now it's almost all over, as if nothing had happened. " He needed to talk: when he had got home that afternoon, Agathe had been there but soon left again; they had spoken only a few brief words before they came to Diotima's; Agathe had dressed with the aid of the gardener's wife. "I did warn you! " Ulrich said.
"Against what? " Diotima asked slowly. "Oh, I don't know. Against everything! "
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1o8g
In fact, he no longer knew himself what he had not warned her against: her ideas, her ambition, the Parallel Campaign, love, intel- lect, the Jubilee Year, the world of business, her salon, her passions; against the dangers of sensibility and of casually letting things take their course, against letting herself go too far and holding herself too much in check, against adultery and marriage. There was nothing he had not warned her against. "That's how she is," he thought. Every- thing she did looked ridiculous to him, yet she was so beautiful it made him sad.
"I warned you," Ulrich repeated. "I hear that you're no longer in- terested in anything but the scientific approach to sexual problems. " Diotima ignored this. "Do you think this Drangsal's protege is re-
ally gifted? " she asked.
"Certainly," Ulrich replied. "Gifted, young, undeveloped. His suc-
cess and this woman will be the ruin ofhim. In this country newborn babies are ruined by being told that they are people with fabulous instincts that intellectual development would only rob them of. He sometimes comes up with good ideas, but can't let ten minutes go by without making an ass of himself. " He leaned over to say in her ear: "Do you know anything specific about that woman? ''
Diotima shook her head almost imperceptibly.
"She's dangerously ambitious," Ulrich said. "But not uninteresting from the point of view of your current researches. Where beautiful women used to wear a fig leaf, she wears a laurelleafl I hate women like that! "
Diotima did not laugh, nor even smile; she merely inclined her head toward the "cousin. "
"And how do you find him as a man? '' he asked.
"Pathetic," Diotima whispered. "Like a lambkin running to pre- mature fat. "
"What of it? The beauty of the male is only a secondary sexual characteristic," Ulrich said. "What's primarily exciting about him is the expectation of his success. Ten years from now Feuermaul will be an international celebrity; Drangsal's connections will take care of that, and then she'll marry him. If he remains a celebrity, it'll be a happy marriage. "
Diotima bethought herself and gravely corrected him: "Happiness in marriage depends on factors one cannot judge without first sub-
1090 · THE-MAN WITH0 UT QUALITIES
jecting oneself to a certain discipline! " Then she abandoned him as a proud ship abandons the quay alongside which it has lain. Her duties as hostess bore her away from him with the barest nod, not even a glance, as she cast off her moorings. But she did not mean it un- kindly; on the contrary, Ulrich's voice had affected her like an old tune from her youth. She even wondered privately what she might learn about him by subjecting his sexuality to the illumination of a scientific study. Oddly enough, in all her detailed research into these problems, she had never thought of connecting them with him.
Ulrich looked up, and through a gap in the festive tumult-a kind of optical channel through which Diotima's gaze might have pre- ceded his own just before she had taken her somewhat abrupt depar- ture-he saw, in the room beyond the next, Paul Arnheim in conversation with Feuermaul, with Frau Drangsal standing benignly by. She had brought the two men together. Arnheim was holding the hand with the cigar raised, as though in an unconscious gesture of self-defense, but he was smiling most engagingly; Feuermaul was talking vivaciously, holding his cigar with two fingers and sucking at it between sentences with the greed of a calf butting its muzzle at the maternal udder. Ulrich could have imagined what they were talking about, but he didn't bother; he stayed where he was, in happy isola- tion, looking around for his sister. He discovered her in a group of men who were mostly strangers to him, and a cool chill ran through him despite his distractedness. But just then Stumm von Bordwehr poked him gently in the ribs with a fingertip, and at the same mo- ment Hofrat Professor Schwung approached him on the other side but was stopped a few steps away by the intervention of one of his colleagues from the capital.
"So there you are at last! " the General murmured in relief. "The Minister wants to know what an 'ethos' is. "
''Why an ethos? "
"I don't know. What's an ethos? "
"An eternal truth," Ulrich defined, "that is neither eternal nor
true, but valid for a time to serve as a standard for people to go by. It's a philosophical and sociological term, and not often used. "
"Aha, that'll be it," the General said. "Arnheim, you see, was claiming that the proposition 'Man is good' is only an ethos. Feuer- maul replied that he didn't know what an ethos was, but man is good,
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1 0 9 1
and that's an eternal truth! Then Leinsdorf said, 'Quite right. There can't really be any evil people, since no one can possibly will evil; these people are only misguided. People are rather nervous these days because in times like these we have so many skeptics who won't believe in anything solid. ' I couldn't help thinking he should have been with us this afternoon. Anyway, he also thinks that people who won't realize what's good for them have to be forced to. And so the Minister wants to know what an ethos is. rll just dash over to him and come right back. Don't budge, so I can find you again! There's some- thing else I must talk with you about, urgently, and then rll take you to the Minister. "
Before Ulrich could ask for particulars, Tuzzi slipped a hand around his arm in passing, saying: 'We haven't seen you here in ages! " Then he went on: "Do you remember my prediction that we'd have a pacifist invasion to deal with? " So saying, he gazed cordially into the General's eyes, but Stumm was in a hurry and merely said that though his ethos as an officer was of another kind, any sincere conviction . . . The rest of this sentence vanished with him, because he always found Tuzzi irritating, which is not conducive to good thinking.
The Section Chief blinked gaily at the General's retreating form and then turned back to the "cousin. " "That business with the oil fields is only a blind, of course," he said.
Ulrich looked at him in surprise.
"You don't mean to say you haven't heard about the oil fields? " Tuzzi asked.
"I have," Ulrich answered. "I was merely surprised that you knew about them," and, not to be impolite, added, "You really understood how to keep quiet about it! "
''I've known about them for quite some time," Tuzzi said, flat- tered. "That this fellow Feuermaul is here this evening is of course Arnheim's doing, bywayofLeinsdorf. Have you read his books, inci- dentally? "
Ulrich admitted that he had.
"A dyed-in-the-wool pacifist! " Tuzzi said. "And La Drangsal, as my wife calls her, mothers him so ambitiously that she'll kill for paci- fism if she has to, even though it's not really her line-artists are her line. " Tuzzi paused to consider, then revealed to Ulrich: "Pacifism is
1092 • THE MAN WITH0 UT QUALITIES
the main thing, of course; the oil fields are only a red herring; that's why they're pushing Feuermaul, with his pacifi. sm, to make everyone think: 'Aha, that's the red herring! ' and believe that what's behind it is the oil fields! Neatly done, but much too clever to fool anybody. For ifArnheim has the Galician oil fields and a contract to supply the Army, we naturally have to protect our frontier. W e also have to in- stall oil bases for the Navy on the Adriatic, which will upset the Ital- ians. But ifwe provoke our neighbors this way, the outcry for peace goes up, and so does the peace propaganda, and then when the Czar steps fotward with some idea about Perpetual Peace, he'll flnd the ground psychologically prepared for it. That's Arnheim's real objective! "
"And you've something against it? "
"Of course we have nothing against it," Tuzzi said. "But as you may remember, I've already explained to you why there's nothing so dangerous as peace at any price. We must defend ourselves against the dilettantes! "
"But Arnheim is a munitions maker! " Ulrich objected, smiling.
"Of course he is! " Tuzzi murmured with some exasperation. "For heaven's sake, how can you be so nai've about these things? He'll have his contract in his pocket. At most, our neighbors will arm too. Mark my words: at the crucial moment, he'll show his hand as a paci- fist! Pacifi. sm is a safe, dependable business for munitions makers; war is a risk! "
"It seems to me the military doesn't really mean any harm," Ulrich said, trying to mollify him. "They're only using the business with Arnheim to bring their artillery up-to-date, nothing more. Today the whole world is only arming for peace, after all, so it only seems right to let the pacifi. sts help. "
"And how do these people imagine that's to be done? " Tuzzi in- quired, ignoring the joke.
"I don't think they've got that far yet; for the present they're still searching their hearts. "
"Naturally! " Tuzzi agreed crossly, as though this were just what he had expected. "The military ought to stick to thinking about war and leave everything else to the department responsible. But before doing that, these gentlemen with their dilettantism would rather en- danger the whole world! I tell you again: Nothing is so dangerous in
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1093
diplomacy as loose talk about peace!
Every time the demand for peace has reached a certain pitch and was no longer to be contained, it's led straight to war! I can document that for you! . .
Now Hofrat Professor Schwung had rid himself of his colleague and turned with great warmth to Ulrich for an introduction to their host. Ulrich obliged with the remark that one might say that this dis- tinguished jurist condemned pacifism in the sphere of the penal code as ardently as the authoritative Section Chief did in the political arena.
"But good gracious,. . Tuzzi protested, laughing, "you've misun- derstood me entirely! . .
And Schwung too, after a moment's hesitation, was sufficiently re- assured to join forces with him, saying that he would not like his view of diminished responsibility to be regarded as in any way bloodthirsty or inhumane.
"Quite the opposite! . . he said, spreading his voice in place of his arms like an old actor on the lecture platform. "It is precisely the pacification of the human being that requires us to be strict! May I assume that the Herr Section Chief has heard something about my most recent current efforts in this matter? . . And he now turned di- rectly to his host, who had heard nothing about the dispute as to whether the diminished responsibility of an insane criminal is based exclusively in his ideas or exclusively in his will, and thus hastened all the more politely to agree with everything Schwung said. Schwung, well satisfied with the effect he had produced, then began to praise the serious view of life to which this evening's gathering gave wit- ness, and reported that he had often overheard in conversations here and there such expressions as "manly severity. . and "moral sound- ness. . . "Our culture is far too infested with inferior types and moral imbeciles,. . he added by way of his own contribution, and asked: "But what is the real purpose of this evening? As I passed some of the groups, I've been struck by how often I've heard positively Rous- seauistic sentiments about the innate goodness of man. . .
Tuzzi, to whom this question was principally addressed, merely smiled, but just then the General came back to Ulrich, and Ulrich, who wanted to give him the slip, introduced him to Schwung and called him the man best qualified among all those present to answer the question. Stumm von Bordwehr vehemently denied this, but nei-
1094 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
ther Schwung nor even Tuzzi would let him go. Ulrich was already beating a jubilant retreat, when he was grabbed by an old acquaint- ance, who said:
"My wife and daughter are also here. " It was Bank Director Leo Fischel.
"Hans Sepp has passed his State Exam," he said. "What do you say to that? All he has to do now is pass one more exam for his doctorate! We're all sitting in that comer over there. . . . "He pointed toward the farthest room. "We know too few people here. Nor have we seen anything ofyou for a long time! Your father, wasn't it . . . ? Hans Sepp got us the invitation for this evening-my wife was dead set on it-so you see the fellow isn't entirely hopeless. They're semi-officially en- gaged now, he and Gerda. You probably didn't know that, did you? But Gerda, you see, that girl, I don't even know whether she's in love with him or has just got it into her head that she is. Won't you come over and join us for a bit? "
'Til be along later," Ulrich promised.
"Please do," Fischel urged, and fell silent. Then he whispered: "Isn't that our host? Won't you introduce me? We haven't had the opportunity. We don't know either him or her. "
But when Ulrich made a move in that direction, Fischel held him back. "And how is the great philosopher? What's he up to? " he asked. "My wife and Gerda are of course mad about him. But what's this about the oil fields? The word now is that it was a false rumor, but I don't believe it. They always deny it! You know, it's the same as when my wife is annoyed with a maid, then I keep hearing that the maid is untruthful, immoral, impertinent-nothing but defects of character, you see? But when I quietly promise the girl a raise, just to have peace in the house, then her character suddenly disappears. No more talk about character, everything's suddenly in order, and my wife doesn't know why. Isn't it always like that? There's too much economic probability in those oil fields for the denials to be be- lieved. "
And because Ulrich held his peace, while Fischel wanted to return to his wife as the glorious bearer of inside information, he began once more:
"One has to admit it's very nice here. But my wife would like to know what all the strange talk is about. And who is this Feuermaul
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · zogs
anyway? " he added. "Gerda says he's a great poet; Hans Sepp says he's nothing but a careerist who's taken everyone in! "
Ulrich allowed that the truth probably lay somewhere in between.
"Now, that's well put! " Fischel said gratefully. "The truth always lies somewhere in between, which everyone forgets nowadays, they're all so extreme! I keep telling Hans Sepp that everyone's enti- tled to his opinions, but the only opinions that count are the ones that enable you to earn a living, because that means that other people appreciate your opinions too! "
There had been an impalpable but important change in Leo Fischel, but Ulrich unfortunately passed up the opportunity to look into it and merely hastened to leave Gerda's father with the group around Section Chief Tuzzi. Here Stumm von Bordwehr had mean- while grown eloquent, frustrated at his inability to pin Ulrich down, and so highly charged with things to say that they burst out by the shortest path.
"How to account for this gathering tonight? " he cried, reiterating Hofrat Schwung's question. "I would assert, in the same judicious spirit in which it was asked: Not at all! I'm not joking, gentlemen," he went on, not without a touch of pride. "This very afternoon I hap- pened to ask a young lady whom I had to show around the psychiatric clinic of our University what it was she was actually interested in see- ing, so we could explain it properly, and she gave me a very witty answer, exceptionally thought-provoking. What she said was: 'If we stop to explain everything, we will never change anything in the world. '"
Schwung shook his head in disapproval.
"What she meant by that I don't really know"-Stumm defended himself-"and I won't take responsibility for it, but you can't help feeling there is some truth in it. You see, I am, for instance, indebted to my friend here"-he gave a polite nod in Ulrich's direction- "who has so often given His Grace, and thereby the Parallel Cam- paign too, the benefit of his thoughts, for a great deal of instruction. But what is taking shape here tonight is a certain distaste for instruc- tion. Which brings me back to my first assertion. "
"But isn't what you want . . . ? " Tuzzi. said. "I mean, the word is that colleagues from the War Ministry hope to stimulate a patriotic decision here, a collection of public funds or some such thing, in
1096 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
order to bring our artillery up to strength. Naturally, a mere token demonstration, just to put some pressure on Parliament through public opinion. ''
"That is certainly my understanding of some things I've heard to- night! " Hofrat Schwung concurred.
"It's much more complicated, Herr Section Chief," the General said.
"And what about Dr. Arnheim? " Tuzzi. said bluntly. "If I may be quite candid: Are you sure that Arnheim wants nothing more than the Galician oil fields, which are tied up, as it were, with the artillery problem? "
"I can only speak of myself and my part in it, Section Chief," Stumm said, warding him off, then repeated: "And it's all much more complicated! "
"Naturally it's more complicated," Tuzzi. said, smiling.
"Of course we need the guns," the General said, warming to the subject, "and it may indeed be advantageous to work with Arnheim along the lines you suggest. But I repeat that I can only speak from my point of view as a cultural officer, and as such I put it to you: 'What's the use of cannons without the spirit to go with them? '"
"And why, in that case, was so much importance attached to bring- ing in Herr Feuermaul? '' Tuzzi. asked ironically. "That is defeatism pure and simple! "
"Permit me to disagree," the General said firmly, "but that is the spirit of the times! Nowadays the spirit of the times has two separate currents. His Grace-he's standing over there with the Minister; I've just come from talking with them-His Grace, for instance, says that the call has to go out for action, that's what the times demand. And in fact people are much less enchanted with the great idea of humanity than they were, say, a hundred years ago. On the other hand, there is of course something to be said for the point of view of loving man- kind, but about that His Grace says that those who do not want what is good for them must in certain circumstances be forced to accept it! So His Grace is in favor of the one current, but without turning his back on the other. "
"I don't quite follow that," Professor Schwung demurred.
"It's not easy to follow," Stumm readily admitted. "Suppose we go back to the point that I see two currents at work in the mind of our
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1097
period. The one states that man is good by nature, when he is left to himself, as it were--"
"How do you mean good? '' Schwung interrupted. 'Who can possi- bly think in such nai've terms nowadays? We're not living in the world of eighteenth-century idealism! "
'Well, I don't know about that. " The General sounded rather net- tled. "Just think of the pacifists, the vegetarians, the enemies of violence, the back-to-nature people, the anti-intellectuals, the con- scientious objectors-! can't call them all to mind offhand-and all the people who put their faith in mankind, as it were; they all form one big current. But ifyou prefer," he added in that obliging way he had that made him so likable, "we can just as easily start out from the opposite point of view. Suppose we start with the fact that people must be regimented because they never do the right thing of their own accord; we might find it easier to agree on that. The masses need a strong hand, they need leaders who can be tough with them and don't just talk; in a word, they need to be guided by the spirit of action. Human society consists, as it were, of only a small number of volunteers, who also have the necessary training, and of millions without any higher ambitions, who seiVe only because they must. Isn't that so, roughly speaking? And because experience has gradu- ally forced us to recognize this fact even here in our campaign, the first current-for what I've just been talking about is the second cur- rent-the first current, I say, is alarmed at the possibility that the great idea of love and faith in mankind might get lost altogether. Hence there were forces at work, you see, that have sent Feuer- maul into our midst to save what can still be saved at the eleventh hour. Which makes it all much easier to understand than we first thought, no? "
"And what's going to happen then? '' Tuzzi wanted to know.
"Nothing, I imagine," Stumm replied. 'We've had lots ofcurrents in the campaign by now. "
"But there's an intolerable contradiction between your two cur- rents," protested Professor Schwung, who as a jurist could not bear such ambiguity.
"Not ifyou look at it closely," Stumm countered. "The one current is of course also in favor of loving mankind, provided you change it first by force. They differ on a technicality, you might say. "
1og8 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
Now Director Fischel spoke up: "As a latecomer to the discussion, I'm afraid I don't have a complete picture. But if I mafsay so, it seems to me that respect for humanity is basically on a higher level than its opposite. This evening I've heard some incredible senti- ments-not representative of this gathering, I'm sure, but still-in- credible sentiments about people of different convictions and above all of differing nationalities. " With his chin clean-shaven between muttonchop whiskers and his tilted pince-nez, he looked like an En- glish lord upholding the freedom of humanity and free trade; he did not mention that the disreputable sentiments in question were those of Hans Sepp, his prospective son-in-law, who was in his element in "the second current" of our times.
"Savage sentiments? " the General asked helpfully. "Extraordinarily savage," Fischel confinned.
"Could they have been talking about 'toughening up'? It's easy to
misconstrue that kind of talk," Stumm said.
"No, no," Fischel exclaimed. "Utterly nihilistic, positively revolu-
tionary views! Perhaps you're out of touch with our rebellious younger generation, Herr Major General. I'm surprised that such people are admitted here at all. "
"Revolutionary views? '' Stumm asked, not at all pleased, and smil- ing in as chilly a manner as his plump face would allow. ''I'm afraid I must admit, Herr Direktor, that I'm by no means an out-and-out op- ponent of revolutionary views. Short of an actual revolution, of course. There's often a good deal of idealism in that sort of thing. And as for admitting them here, our campaign, which is intended to draw the whole country together, has no right to turn away construc- tive forces, in whatever mode they may express themselves! "
Leo Fischel was silent. Professor Schwung was not much inter- ested in the views of a dignitary who was outside the ranks of the civilian bureaucracy. Tuzzi had been dreaming: "first current . . . sec- ond current. " It reminded him of two similar expressions, "first res- eiVoir . . . second reseiVoir," but he could not remember them precisely, or the conversation with Ulrich in which they had come up; yet it stirred in him an incomprehensible jealousy of his wife, which was connected to this harmless General by intangible links he could not begin to disentangle. Awakened to reality by the silence, he
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · zogg
wanted to show the representative of the military that he was not to be sidetracked by digressions.
"All in all, General," he began, "the military party wants-"
"But, my dear Section Chief, there is no military party! " Stumm immediately broke in. "People are always talking about a military party, but by its very nature the military is above party! "
"Let's say the military hierarchy, then," Tuzzi replied, chafing at the interruption. "You were saying that what the army needs is not just guns but the spirit to go with them; by what spirit will you be pleased to have your guns loaded? ''
"That's going too far, Section Chiefl" Stumm protested. "It all started with my being asked to explain tonight's gathering to these gentlemen, and I said one really couldn't explain anything; that's all I'm taking my stand on! Ifthe spirit ofthe times really has two such currents as I have described, neither of them favors 'explanation'; today we favor instinctual energies, dark forces in the blood, and the like. I certainly don't go along with that, but there's something in it! "
At these words Fischel began to fume again, finding it immoral for the military to even consider making terms with the anti-Semites in order to get their guns.
"Come now, Herr Director," Stumm tried to pacify him. "In the first place, a little anti-Semitism more or less hardly matters when people are already so anti to begin with: the Germans anti the Czechs and the Magyars, the Czechs anti the Magyars and the Ger- mans, and so on, everybody against everybody else. Second, if any- one has always been international, it has been the Austrian Army Officers Corps: you need only look at the many Italian, French, Scot- tish, and Lord knows what other names; we even have an Infantry General von Kohn, he's a corps commandant in Olmiitz! "
"All the same, I'm afraid you've bitten off more than you can chew," Tuzzi broke in on this diversion. "You're both internationalist and war-minded, but you want to deal with the nationalist move- ments and the pacifists as well: that's almost more than a professional diplomat could manage. Conducting military politics with pacifism is the task confronting the greatest diplomatic experts in Europe at this moment!
"Glad to hear it! " Meseritscher answered.
If the news is to be reported with speed and confidence, today's
news should not be too different from yesterday's, or what one knows already. Even genius is no exception: real, acknowledged genius, that
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is, whose significance can be readily assessed in its own time. Not so the genius that is not instantly recognized by all and sundry! This sort of genius has something distinctly ungenial about it, a quality, more- over, that is not even solely its own, so that it is possible to misjudge it in every respect. Privy Councillor Meseritscher had a solid inventory of geniuses, which he tended with care and attention, but he was not keen on adding new items. The older and more experienced he grew, in fact, the more he had even formed the habit of regarding any ris- ing artistic genius, especially in his neighboring field of literature, merely as a frivolous interference with his own work of reportage, and he hated it in all righteousness until it became ripe for inclusion in his lists of"those present. " At that time Feuermaul still had a long way to go, and his way had yet to be smoothed for him. Privy Coun- cillor Meseritscher was not quite sure he was in favor.
"They say he's supposed to be a great poet," Tuzzi repeated hesi- tantly, and Meseritscher retorted firmly: "Who says so? The critics on the book page? I ask you, Section Chief, what difference does that make? The specialists say these things, and what of it? Many of them say the opposite. We've even known the same experts to say one thing one day and something else the next. Does it really matter what they say? A real literary reputation has to have reached the illiterates; only then can you depend on it! Would you like to know what I think? What a great man does, apart from his arriving and leaving, is nobody's business! "
He had worked himself up into a gloomy fervor, and his eyes were glued to Tuzzi's. Tuzzi gave up and said nothing.
"What's really going on here this evening, Section Chief? " Mese- ritscher asked him.
Tuzzi smiled absently and shrugged his shoulders. "Nothing. Nothing, really. A little ambition. Have you ever read any of Feuer- maul's books? "
"I know what he writes about: peace, friendship, goodness, et cetera. "
"So you don't think too much of him? " Tuzzi said.
"Good Lord! " Meseritscher started wriggling. "Who am I to say . . . ? " At this point Frau Drangsal came bearing down on them, and Tuzzi had to take a courteous step or two in her direction. Mese- ritscher saw the chance to slip into a breach he had espied in the
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1087
circle around Count Leinsdorf, and seizing it before anyone else could waylay him, he dropped anchor beside His Grace.
Count Leinsdorf was talking with the Minister and some other men, but as soon as Meseritscher had paid them all his devout re- spects, His Grace turned slightly and drew him aside.
"Meseritscher," he said intently. "Promise me that there will be no misunderstandings; the gentlemen of the press never seem to know what to write. Now then: Nothing whatsoever has changed in our position since the last time. Something may change. We don't know about that. For the time being there must be no interference. So please, even if one of your colleagues should ask you, remember that this whole evening here is nothing more than a private party given by Frau Tuzzi. . "
Meseritscher's eyelids slowly and solicitously conveyed that he had understood these top-level commands. And since one confidence deserves another, he moistened his lips, which then gleamed as his eyes should have done, and asked: "And what about Feuermaul, Your Excellency, if I may be permitted to ask? "
"Why on earth shouldn't you? " Count Leinsdorf replied in sur- prise. "There's nothing whatever to be said about Feuermaul! He was invited because Baroness Wayden wouldn't leave us in peace until he was! What else should there be? Perhaps you know some- thing? "
Up to this point Privy Councillor Meseritscher had not been in- clined to take the Feuermaul question too seriously, but regarded it as one ofthe many social rivalries he ran into every day. But now that even Count Leinsdorf denied so energetically that there was any- thing in it, Meseritscher had to think again, and came to the conclu- sion that something important was in the wind. "What can they be up to now? " he brooded as he wandered through the throng, pondering one by one the most daring possibilities of domestic and foreign pol- icy. But after a while he decided abruptly: "There's probably nothing to it," and refused to let himself be distracted any longer from his job of reporting the news.
For however much it appeared to be in conflict with his mission in life, Meseritscher did not believe in great events; indeed, he did not hold with them. When one believes that one is living in a very impor- tant, very splendid, and very great period, one does not welcome the
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idea that anything especially important, splendid, and great has yet to happen in it. Meseritscher was no alpinist, but if he had been he would have said that his attitude was as correct as it was to put look- out towers on middling-high mountains but never on the really high peaks. Since such analogies did not occur to him, it was enough to register a certain uneasiness and make up his mind that he would not mention Feuermaul in his column at all, not even by name.
A GREAT EVENT IS IN THE MAKING. MEETING SOME OLD ACQUAINTANCES
Ulrich, who had been standing beside his cousin while she was speaking with Meseritscher, asked her as soon as they were alone for a moment:
''I'm sorry I arrived too late; how was your first encounter with La Drangsal? "
Diotima raised her heavy eyelashes to give him a single world- weary glance and dropped them again.
"Delightful, of course. She'd been to see me. We'll arrange some- thing or other this evening. As ifit made any difference! "
"You see! " Ulrich said, in the tone of their old conversations, as if to draw a final line under all that.
Diotima turned her head and gave her cousin a quizzical look.
"I told you already," Ulrich said. "Now it's almost all over, as if nothing had happened. " He needed to talk: when he had got home that afternoon, Agathe had been there but soon left again; they had spoken only a few brief words before they came to Diotima's; Agathe had dressed with the aid of the gardener's wife. "I did warn you! " Ulrich said.
"Against what? " Diotima asked slowly. "Oh, I don't know. Against everything! "
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In fact, he no longer knew himself what he had not warned her against: her ideas, her ambition, the Parallel Campaign, love, intel- lect, the Jubilee Year, the world of business, her salon, her passions; against the dangers of sensibility and of casually letting things take their course, against letting herself go too far and holding herself too much in check, against adultery and marriage. There was nothing he had not warned her against. "That's how she is," he thought. Every- thing she did looked ridiculous to him, yet she was so beautiful it made him sad.
"I warned you," Ulrich repeated. "I hear that you're no longer in- terested in anything but the scientific approach to sexual problems. " Diotima ignored this. "Do you think this Drangsal's protege is re-
ally gifted? " she asked.
"Certainly," Ulrich replied. "Gifted, young, undeveloped. His suc-
cess and this woman will be the ruin ofhim. In this country newborn babies are ruined by being told that they are people with fabulous instincts that intellectual development would only rob them of. He sometimes comes up with good ideas, but can't let ten minutes go by without making an ass of himself. " He leaned over to say in her ear: "Do you know anything specific about that woman? ''
Diotima shook her head almost imperceptibly.
"She's dangerously ambitious," Ulrich said. "But not uninteresting from the point of view of your current researches. Where beautiful women used to wear a fig leaf, she wears a laurelleafl I hate women like that! "
Diotima did not laugh, nor even smile; she merely inclined her head toward the "cousin. "
"And how do you find him as a man? '' he asked.
"Pathetic," Diotima whispered. "Like a lambkin running to pre- mature fat. "
"What of it? The beauty of the male is only a secondary sexual characteristic," Ulrich said. "What's primarily exciting about him is the expectation of his success. Ten years from now Feuermaul will be an international celebrity; Drangsal's connections will take care of that, and then she'll marry him. If he remains a celebrity, it'll be a happy marriage. "
Diotima bethought herself and gravely corrected him: "Happiness in marriage depends on factors one cannot judge without first sub-
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jecting oneself to a certain discipline! " Then she abandoned him as a proud ship abandons the quay alongside which it has lain. Her duties as hostess bore her away from him with the barest nod, not even a glance, as she cast off her moorings. But she did not mean it un- kindly; on the contrary, Ulrich's voice had affected her like an old tune from her youth. She even wondered privately what she might learn about him by subjecting his sexuality to the illumination of a scientific study. Oddly enough, in all her detailed research into these problems, she had never thought of connecting them with him.
Ulrich looked up, and through a gap in the festive tumult-a kind of optical channel through which Diotima's gaze might have pre- ceded his own just before she had taken her somewhat abrupt depar- ture-he saw, in the room beyond the next, Paul Arnheim in conversation with Feuermaul, with Frau Drangsal standing benignly by. She had brought the two men together. Arnheim was holding the hand with the cigar raised, as though in an unconscious gesture of self-defense, but he was smiling most engagingly; Feuermaul was talking vivaciously, holding his cigar with two fingers and sucking at it between sentences with the greed of a calf butting its muzzle at the maternal udder. Ulrich could have imagined what they were talking about, but he didn't bother; he stayed where he was, in happy isola- tion, looking around for his sister. He discovered her in a group of men who were mostly strangers to him, and a cool chill ran through him despite his distractedness. But just then Stumm von Bordwehr poked him gently in the ribs with a fingertip, and at the same mo- ment Hofrat Professor Schwung approached him on the other side but was stopped a few steps away by the intervention of one of his colleagues from the capital.
"So there you are at last! " the General murmured in relief. "The Minister wants to know what an 'ethos' is. "
''Why an ethos? "
"I don't know. What's an ethos? "
"An eternal truth," Ulrich defined, "that is neither eternal nor
true, but valid for a time to serve as a standard for people to go by. It's a philosophical and sociological term, and not often used. "
"Aha, that'll be it," the General said. "Arnheim, you see, was claiming that the proposition 'Man is good' is only an ethos. Feuer- maul replied that he didn't know what an ethos was, but man is good,
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1 0 9 1
and that's an eternal truth! Then Leinsdorf said, 'Quite right. There can't really be any evil people, since no one can possibly will evil; these people are only misguided. People are rather nervous these days because in times like these we have so many skeptics who won't believe in anything solid. ' I couldn't help thinking he should have been with us this afternoon. Anyway, he also thinks that people who won't realize what's good for them have to be forced to. And so the Minister wants to know what an ethos is. rll just dash over to him and come right back. Don't budge, so I can find you again! There's some- thing else I must talk with you about, urgently, and then rll take you to the Minister. "
Before Ulrich could ask for particulars, Tuzzi slipped a hand around his arm in passing, saying: 'We haven't seen you here in ages! " Then he went on: "Do you remember my prediction that we'd have a pacifist invasion to deal with? " So saying, he gazed cordially into the General's eyes, but Stumm was in a hurry and merely said that though his ethos as an officer was of another kind, any sincere conviction . . . The rest of this sentence vanished with him, because he always found Tuzzi irritating, which is not conducive to good thinking.
The Section Chief blinked gaily at the General's retreating form and then turned back to the "cousin. " "That business with the oil fields is only a blind, of course," he said.
Ulrich looked at him in surprise.
"You don't mean to say you haven't heard about the oil fields? " Tuzzi asked.
"I have," Ulrich answered. "I was merely surprised that you knew about them," and, not to be impolite, added, "You really understood how to keep quiet about it! "
''I've known about them for quite some time," Tuzzi said, flat- tered. "That this fellow Feuermaul is here this evening is of course Arnheim's doing, bywayofLeinsdorf. Have you read his books, inci- dentally? "
Ulrich admitted that he had.
"A dyed-in-the-wool pacifist! " Tuzzi said. "And La Drangsal, as my wife calls her, mothers him so ambitiously that she'll kill for paci- fism if she has to, even though it's not really her line-artists are her line. " Tuzzi paused to consider, then revealed to Ulrich: "Pacifism is
1092 • THE MAN WITH0 UT QUALITIES
the main thing, of course; the oil fields are only a red herring; that's why they're pushing Feuermaul, with his pacifi. sm, to make everyone think: 'Aha, that's the red herring! ' and believe that what's behind it is the oil fields! Neatly done, but much too clever to fool anybody. For ifArnheim has the Galician oil fields and a contract to supply the Army, we naturally have to protect our frontier. W e also have to in- stall oil bases for the Navy on the Adriatic, which will upset the Ital- ians. But ifwe provoke our neighbors this way, the outcry for peace goes up, and so does the peace propaganda, and then when the Czar steps fotward with some idea about Perpetual Peace, he'll flnd the ground psychologically prepared for it. That's Arnheim's real objective! "
"And you've something against it? "
"Of course we have nothing against it," Tuzzi said. "But as you may remember, I've already explained to you why there's nothing so dangerous as peace at any price. We must defend ourselves against the dilettantes! "
"But Arnheim is a munitions maker! " Ulrich objected, smiling.
"Of course he is! " Tuzzi murmured with some exasperation. "For heaven's sake, how can you be so nai've about these things? He'll have his contract in his pocket. At most, our neighbors will arm too. Mark my words: at the crucial moment, he'll show his hand as a paci- fist! Pacifi. sm is a safe, dependable business for munitions makers; war is a risk! "
"It seems to me the military doesn't really mean any harm," Ulrich said, trying to mollify him. "They're only using the business with Arnheim to bring their artillery up-to-date, nothing more. Today the whole world is only arming for peace, after all, so it only seems right to let the pacifi. sts help. "
"And how do these people imagine that's to be done? " Tuzzi in- quired, ignoring the joke.
"I don't think they've got that far yet; for the present they're still searching their hearts. "
"Naturally! " Tuzzi agreed crossly, as though this were just what he had expected. "The military ought to stick to thinking about war and leave everything else to the department responsible. But before doing that, these gentlemen with their dilettantism would rather en- danger the whole world! I tell you again: Nothing is so dangerous in
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1093
diplomacy as loose talk about peace!
Every time the demand for peace has reached a certain pitch and was no longer to be contained, it's led straight to war! I can document that for you! . .
Now Hofrat Professor Schwung had rid himself of his colleague and turned with great warmth to Ulrich for an introduction to their host. Ulrich obliged with the remark that one might say that this dis- tinguished jurist condemned pacifism in the sphere of the penal code as ardently as the authoritative Section Chief did in the political arena.
"But good gracious,. . Tuzzi protested, laughing, "you've misun- derstood me entirely! . .
And Schwung too, after a moment's hesitation, was sufficiently re- assured to join forces with him, saying that he would not like his view of diminished responsibility to be regarded as in any way bloodthirsty or inhumane.
"Quite the opposite! . . he said, spreading his voice in place of his arms like an old actor on the lecture platform. "It is precisely the pacification of the human being that requires us to be strict! May I assume that the Herr Section Chief has heard something about my most recent current efforts in this matter? . . And he now turned di- rectly to his host, who had heard nothing about the dispute as to whether the diminished responsibility of an insane criminal is based exclusively in his ideas or exclusively in his will, and thus hastened all the more politely to agree with everything Schwung said. Schwung, well satisfied with the effect he had produced, then began to praise the serious view of life to which this evening's gathering gave wit- ness, and reported that he had often overheard in conversations here and there such expressions as "manly severity. . and "moral sound- ness. . . "Our culture is far too infested with inferior types and moral imbeciles,. . he added by way of his own contribution, and asked: "But what is the real purpose of this evening? As I passed some of the groups, I've been struck by how often I've heard positively Rous- seauistic sentiments about the innate goodness of man. . .
Tuzzi, to whom this question was principally addressed, merely smiled, but just then the General came back to Ulrich, and Ulrich, who wanted to give him the slip, introduced him to Schwung and called him the man best qualified among all those present to answer the question. Stumm von Bordwehr vehemently denied this, but nei-
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ther Schwung nor even Tuzzi would let him go. Ulrich was already beating a jubilant retreat, when he was grabbed by an old acquaint- ance, who said:
"My wife and daughter are also here. " It was Bank Director Leo Fischel.
"Hans Sepp has passed his State Exam," he said. "What do you say to that? All he has to do now is pass one more exam for his doctorate! We're all sitting in that comer over there. . . . "He pointed toward the farthest room. "We know too few people here. Nor have we seen anything ofyou for a long time! Your father, wasn't it . . . ? Hans Sepp got us the invitation for this evening-my wife was dead set on it-so you see the fellow isn't entirely hopeless. They're semi-officially en- gaged now, he and Gerda. You probably didn't know that, did you? But Gerda, you see, that girl, I don't even know whether she's in love with him or has just got it into her head that she is. Won't you come over and join us for a bit? "
'Til be along later," Ulrich promised.
"Please do," Fischel urged, and fell silent. Then he whispered: "Isn't that our host? Won't you introduce me? We haven't had the opportunity. We don't know either him or her. "
But when Ulrich made a move in that direction, Fischel held him back. "And how is the great philosopher? What's he up to? " he asked. "My wife and Gerda are of course mad about him. But what's this about the oil fields? The word now is that it was a false rumor, but I don't believe it. They always deny it! You know, it's the same as when my wife is annoyed with a maid, then I keep hearing that the maid is untruthful, immoral, impertinent-nothing but defects of character, you see? But when I quietly promise the girl a raise, just to have peace in the house, then her character suddenly disappears. No more talk about character, everything's suddenly in order, and my wife doesn't know why. Isn't it always like that? There's too much economic probability in those oil fields for the denials to be be- lieved. "
And because Ulrich held his peace, while Fischel wanted to return to his wife as the glorious bearer of inside information, he began once more:
"One has to admit it's very nice here. But my wife would like to know what all the strange talk is about. And who is this Feuermaul
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anyway? " he added. "Gerda says he's a great poet; Hans Sepp says he's nothing but a careerist who's taken everyone in! "
Ulrich allowed that the truth probably lay somewhere in between.
"Now, that's well put! " Fischel said gratefully. "The truth always lies somewhere in between, which everyone forgets nowadays, they're all so extreme! I keep telling Hans Sepp that everyone's enti- tled to his opinions, but the only opinions that count are the ones that enable you to earn a living, because that means that other people appreciate your opinions too! "
There had been an impalpable but important change in Leo Fischel, but Ulrich unfortunately passed up the opportunity to look into it and merely hastened to leave Gerda's father with the group around Section Chief Tuzzi. Here Stumm von Bordwehr had mean- while grown eloquent, frustrated at his inability to pin Ulrich down, and so highly charged with things to say that they burst out by the shortest path.
"How to account for this gathering tonight? " he cried, reiterating Hofrat Schwung's question. "I would assert, in the same judicious spirit in which it was asked: Not at all! I'm not joking, gentlemen," he went on, not without a touch of pride. "This very afternoon I hap- pened to ask a young lady whom I had to show around the psychiatric clinic of our University what it was she was actually interested in see- ing, so we could explain it properly, and she gave me a very witty answer, exceptionally thought-provoking. What she said was: 'If we stop to explain everything, we will never change anything in the world. '"
Schwung shook his head in disapproval.
"What she meant by that I don't really know"-Stumm defended himself-"and I won't take responsibility for it, but you can't help feeling there is some truth in it. You see, I am, for instance, indebted to my friend here"-he gave a polite nod in Ulrich's direction- "who has so often given His Grace, and thereby the Parallel Cam- paign too, the benefit of his thoughts, for a great deal of instruction. But what is taking shape here tonight is a certain distaste for instruc- tion. Which brings me back to my first assertion. "
"But isn't what you want . . . ? " Tuzzi. said. "I mean, the word is that colleagues from the War Ministry hope to stimulate a patriotic decision here, a collection of public funds or some such thing, in
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order to bring our artillery up to strength. Naturally, a mere token demonstration, just to put some pressure on Parliament through public opinion. ''
"That is certainly my understanding of some things I've heard to- night! " Hofrat Schwung concurred.
"It's much more complicated, Herr Section Chief," the General said.
"And what about Dr. Arnheim? " Tuzzi. said bluntly. "If I may be quite candid: Are you sure that Arnheim wants nothing more than the Galician oil fields, which are tied up, as it were, with the artillery problem? "
"I can only speak of myself and my part in it, Section Chief," Stumm said, warding him off, then repeated: "And it's all much more complicated! "
"Naturally it's more complicated," Tuzzi. said, smiling.
"Of course we need the guns," the General said, warming to the subject, "and it may indeed be advantageous to work with Arnheim along the lines you suggest. But I repeat that I can only speak from my point of view as a cultural officer, and as such I put it to you: 'What's the use of cannons without the spirit to go with them? '"
"And why, in that case, was so much importance attached to bring- ing in Herr Feuermaul? '' Tuzzi. asked ironically. "That is defeatism pure and simple! "
"Permit me to disagree," the General said firmly, "but that is the spirit of the times! Nowadays the spirit of the times has two separate currents. His Grace-he's standing over there with the Minister; I've just come from talking with them-His Grace, for instance, says that the call has to go out for action, that's what the times demand. And in fact people are much less enchanted with the great idea of humanity than they were, say, a hundred years ago. On the other hand, there is of course something to be said for the point of view of loving man- kind, but about that His Grace says that those who do not want what is good for them must in certain circumstances be forced to accept it! So His Grace is in favor of the one current, but without turning his back on the other. "
"I don't quite follow that," Professor Schwung demurred.
"It's not easy to follow," Stumm readily admitted. "Suppose we go back to the point that I see two currents at work in the mind of our
Into the Millennium (The Criminals) · 1097
period. The one states that man is good by nature, when he is left to himself, as it were--"
"How do you mean good? '' Schwung interrupted. 'Who can possi- bly think in such nai've terms nowadays? We're not living in the world of eighteenth-century idealism! "
'Well, I don't know about that. " The General sounded rather net- tled. "Just think of the pacifists, the vegetarians, the enemies of violence, the back-to-nature people, the anti-intellectuals, the con- scientious objectors-! can't call them all to mind offhand-and all the people who put their faith in mankind, as it were; they all form one big current. But ifyou prefer," he added in that obliging way he had that made him so likable, "we can just as easily start out from the opposite point of view. Suppose we start with the fact that people must be regimented because they never do the right thing of their own accord; we might find it easier to agree on that. The masses need a strong hand, they need leaders who can be tough with them and don't just talk; in a word, they need to be guided by the spirit of action. Human society consists, as it were, of only a small number of volunteers, who also have the necessary training, and of millions without any higher ambitions, who seiVe only because they must. Isn't that so, roughly speaking? And because experience has gradu- ally forced us to recognize this fact even here in our campaign, the first current-for what I've just been talking about is the second cur- rent-the first current, I say, is alarmed at the possibility that the great idea of love and faith in mankind might get lost altogether. Hence there were forces at work, you see, that have sent Feuer- maul into our midst to save what can still be saved at the eleventh hour. Which makes it all much easier to understand than we first thought, no? "
"And what's going to happen then? '' Tuzzi wanted to know.
"Nothing, I imagine," Stumm replied. 'We've had lots ofcurrents in the campaign by now. "
"But there's an intolerable contradiction between your two cur- rents," protested Professor Schwung, who as a jurist could not bear such ambiguity.
"Not ifyou look at it closely," Stumm countered. "The one current is of course also in favor of loving mankind, provided you change it first by force. They differ on a technicality, you might say. "
1og8 · THE MAN WITH0UT QUALITIES
Now Director Fischel spoke up: "As a latecomer to the discussion, I'm afraid I don't have a complete picture. But if I mafsay so, it seems to me that respect for humanity is basically on a higher level than its opposite. This evening I've heard some incredible senti- ments-not representative of this gathering, I'm sure, but still-in- credible sentiments about people of different convictions and above all of differing nationalities. " With his chin clean-shaven between muttonchop whiskers and his tilted pince-nez, he looked like an En- glish lord upholding the freedom of humanity and free trade; he did not mention that the disreputable sentiments in question were those of Hans Sepp, his prospective son-in-law, who was in his element in "the second current" of our times.
"Savage sentiments? " the General asked helpfully. "Extraordinarily savage," Fischel confinned.
"Could they have been talking about 'toughening up'? It's easy to
misconstrue that kind of talk," Stumm said.
"No, no," Fischel exclaimed. "Utterly nihilistic, positively revolu-
tionary views! Perhaps you're out of touch with our rebellious younger generation, Herr Major General. I'm surprised that such people are admitted here at all. "
"Revolutionary views? '' Stumm asked, not at all pleased, and smil- ing in as chilly a manner as his plump face would allow. ''I'm afraid I must admit, Herr Direktor, that I'm by no means an out-and-out op- ponent of revolutionary views. Short of an actual revolution, of course. There's often a good deal of idealism in that sort of thing. And as for admitting them here, our campaign, which is intended to draw the whole country together, has no right to turn away construc- tive forces, in whatever mode they may express themselves! "
Leo Fischel was silent. Professor Schwung was not much inter- ested in the views of a dignitary who was outside the ranks of the civilian bureaucracy. Tuzzi had been dreaming: "first current . . . sec- ond current. " It reminded him of two similar expressions, "first res- eiVoir . . . second reseiVoir," but he could not remember them precisely, or the conversation with Ulrich in which they had come up; yet it stirred in him an incomprehensible jealousy of his wife, which was connected to this harmless General by intangible links he could not begin to disentangle. Awakened to reality by the silence, he
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wanted to show the representative of the military that he was not to be sidetracked by digressions.
"All in all, General," he began, "the military party wants-"
"But, my dear Section Chief, there is no military party! " Stumm immediately broke in. "People are always talking about a military party, but by its very nature the military is above party! "
"Let's say the military hierarchy, then," Tuzzi replied, chafing at the interruption. "You were saying that what the army needs is not just guns but the spirit to go with them; by what spirit will you be pleased to have your guns loaded? ''
"That's going too far, Section Chiefl" Stumm protested. "It all started with my being asked to explain tonight's gathering to these gentlemen, and I said one really couldn't explain anything; that's all I'm taking my stand on! Ifthe spirit ofthe times really has two such currents as I have described, neither of them favors 'explanation'; today we favor instinctual energies, dark forces in the blood, and the like. I certainly don't go along with that, but there's something in it! "
At these words Fischel began to fume again, finding it immoral for the military to even consider making terms with the anti-Semites in order to get their guns.
"Come now, Herr Director," Stumm tried to pacify him. "In the first place, a little anti-Semitism more or less hardly matters when people are already so anti to begin with: the Germans anti the Czechs and the Magyars, the Czechs anti the Magyars and the Ger- mans, and so on, everybody against everybody else. Second, if any- one has always been international, it has been the Austrian Army Officers Corps: you need only look at the many Italian, French, Scot- tish, and Lord knows what other names; we even have an Infantry General von Kohn, he's a corps commandant in Olmiitz! "
"All the same, I'm afraid you've bitten off more than you can chew," Tuzzi broke in on this diversion. "You're both internationalist and war-minded, but you want to deal with the nationalist move- ments and the pacifists as well: that's almost more than a professional diplomat could manage. Conducting military politics with pacifism is the task confronting the greatest diplomatic experts in Europe at this moment!
