pra-national world organization for
peace is "good"-but this need not
lead us to try by any means to equate
the two former or to find a model for
the latter
in
the Congress System of
the early nineteenth century.
Even the initially more convincing
link between German romanticism and
the Nazis (which Mr. Viereck tried to
demonstrate at greater length in his
Metapolitics)
is by no means as clear–
cut as it seems. With notably few ex–
ceptions, theories of nationalism in the
early nineteenth century were closely
interwoven with an idealistic cosmopoli–
tanism. History shows that Nazism de–
rived at least as much support from
Conservatism (not always unenlight–
ened) as from Romanticism.
The whole process of making Roman–
tics responsible for our troubles can be
taken seriously only as the manifesta–
tion of an aesthetic rather than an
analytically historical approach. One
striking example of the difficulty Mr.
Viereck gets himself into through this
special perspective is his enthusiastic ac–
ceptance of Burke's political wisdom,
with little mention of the fact that
Burke was, if anything, an "organicist,"
an intuitionist, and, above all,-a Ro-
207
mantic. All three are categories from
which Mr. Viereck righteously recoils.
I suppose he would resolve this dilem–
ma by distinguishing between "West–
ern" and "German" Romanticism, a
distinction far from easy to demon–
strate.
Questions of detail arise
in
connec–
tion with such matters as Mr. Viereck's
overweighting of the influence of Tory
Democracy in nineteenth-century Eng–
land, and his praise of the "genius for
moral
lead~rship"
of the eighUenth–
century Whigs-who, when faced with
the crisis created by the French Revo–
lution, retreated to their country hous–
es. But these are not major points.
Suffice it to add that behind the
anti-Romantic crusade and the pane–
gyric of Metternich lurk not the Blim–
pean jeremiads one might expect to
find, but a program not so very far re–
moved from that of the ADA.
It is easy to find reasons why Mr.
Viereck should choose to assume this
disguise. It is less easy to understand
why a great many people who think of
themselves as anything but conservatives
should find it necessary to emulate him.
This is why I did not mention Mr.
Viereck's name
in
my parody, and this
FO R SE A SONE D RE A D ERS
THE SACRED RIVER, an approach to James Joyce by L. A. G.
Strong
THE GOD THAT FAILED, Koestler, Silone et al
ANCIENT ART AND RITUAL, Jane E. Harrison
GODS AND HEROES OF THE CELTS, Sjoestedt
DOMINIQUE, Fromentin
2.50
3.50
2.50
2.00
2.75
PRIVATE MEMOIRS AND CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED
SINNER,
J.
Hogg
2.75
SHERWOOD ANDERSON READER, ed. Paul Rosenfeld
5.00
POETRY OF CRASHAW, wrappers
4
seasons
21 Greenwich Ave.
CR. 2-0500
with us 3.00
1.25
boo ks
New York 14
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