30 JUNE 1917, Page 14

ANOTHER GERMAN "GEM."

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")

Sia,—May I thank you for your kind review of my 501 Gems of German Thought, and at the same time say that I have just come across another gem which, had I found it in time, should have figured as the motto for the whole collection? In the Kolnische Zeitung for August 27th, 1914 (No. 900), there appears a fcailleton entitled " Voin lebendigem Wort "—" Of the Living Word "—which cads with these sentences :- " Des deutsche Volk baut sich heute ini Wort des bleibende Haus der grossen Gefithle unserer grossen Zeit. Wir dilrfau stolz sein auf die schlichte Monumentalitat theses Bans. Man kennt Stendhal's Wort, 'Der Stil ist der Mensch.' Wir wollen hente antins sagen Der Stil ist—das " The German people is to-day building itself in words the enduring house of the great emotions of our great time. We may well be proud of the simple monumentality of this erection. We

all know Stendhal's (!) saying, 'The style is the man.' We will to-day amend it, and say : The style is—the People."

In respect of " simple monumentality " this would certainly be