Learn to
respect yourselves, and by your actions show that you do so, and the
world will respect you. You will give the first proof of this through
the amount of influence which you assume in regard to the resolution
that is proposed, and through the manner in which you conduct
yourselves regarding it.
These addresses adjure you, princes of Germany! Those who act toward
you as though no man dared say aught to you, or had aught to say, are
despicable flatterers, are base slanderers of you yourselves. Drive
them far from you! The truth is that you were born exactly as ignorant
as all the rest of us, and that, exactly like ourselves, you must hear
and learn if you are to escape from this natural ignorance. Your share
in bringing about the fate which has befallen you simultaneously with
your peoples is here set forth in the mildest way and, as we believe,
in the way which is alone right and just; and in case you wish to
hear only flattery, and never the truth, you cannot complain regarding
these addresses. Let all this be forgotten, even as all the rest of us
also desire that our share in the guilt may be forgotten. Now begins
a new life as well for yourselves as for all of us. May this voice
penetrate to you through all the surroundings which normally make you
inaccessible! With proud self-reliance it dares to say to you: You
rule nations, faithful, plastic, and worthy of good fortune, such as
princes of no time and of no nation have ruled.
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