rite theories, he brushes them away. And he never
accepts any compromise. He is all made of one piece. He has the
hardness of granite. He has never been afraid of unpopularity. He has
always been a loyal friend and an equally staunch hater.

III.--TREITSCHKE AS A WRITER.

"Le style est l'homme." Never was Buffon's dictum more strikingly
verified, and never did any literary style reveal so completely the
personality of the man. Treitschke's style is imperious and
aggressive. It has the ring of the General who gives the word of
command. His sentences are not involved, as German sentences generally
are. They are pregnant and concise. Treitschke often reminds one of a
writer whom of all others he most cordially detests. Like Heine,
Treitschke is incisive, epigrammatic. His phrase has always muscle and
nerve: it has warmth and fervour. Treitschke has not the gift of
humour. A German seldom possesses that redeeming gift. But he wields
the weapon of trenchant irony with terrible force, and he adds the
poet's power of vision and the true historian's sense of reality and
sense of individuality. He has Macaulay's gift of orderly narrative.
He is equally masterly in describing a battle scene, a meeting of
diplomatists, a revolutionary movement. His picture of the Congress of
Vienna is unsurpassed in historical literature. Like Saint-Simon, he
can sum up a character in a few lines. German historians are seldom
skilful portrait-painters. Treitschke forms an exception. His
portraits of Talleyrand, of Metternich, of Tsar Alexander I., of
Leopold I., King of the Belgians, are masterpieces of the literary
craft.

IV.--TREITSCHKE AS A CLEAR AND ORIGINAL THINKER.

But all those artistic gifts would not have given him his commanding
influence in the world of practical politics if he had not added the
gifts of clear thinking and luminous exposition, which are so very
rare in Germany. Treitschke is essentially an honest and systematic
thinker. As Professor of History in the University of Berlin, he was
accustomed to make intricate and abstract subjects interesting and
intelligible to vast audiences of students. We are never left in any
doubt as to his inner meaning. He always goes straight to the point.
There are no equivocations or mental reservations. He has the brevity
but none of the ambiguity of the lawgiver. There are no gaps in his
reasoning. He moves from one point to another in orderly sequence. Our
intellectual and artisti