e days of armor protection needs to be diligently
recalled as a qualifying consideration. It is, in fact, a restatement of
the oft-admitted, readily-forgotten maxim that offense is the best
defense. "I believe in celerity," said he, when announcing his
determination soon to pass the Mississippi forts; and good reason had he
to congratulate himself that this faith showed itself in his works below
New Orleans, and to lament before Mobile the failure of his Government
to observe the maxim which all acknowledge. "Five minutes," said Nelson,
"may make the difference between victory and defeat." "False
(circuitous) routes and lost moments," wrote Napoleon, "are the
determining elements of naval campaigns." All admit the value of time;
but with what apathetic deliberation is often watched the flight of
hours which are measuring the race between two enemies!

The personal character of Admiral Farragut afforded the firm natural
foundation upon which alone a great military character can be built; for
while no toleration should be shown to the absurd belief that military
eminence leaps fully grown into the arena, like Minerva from the head of
Jupiter--that, unlike every other kind of perfection, it grows wild and
owes nothing to care, to arduous study, to constant preparation--it is
still true that it can be developed only upon great natural aptitudes.
The distinction conveyed by a phrase of Jomini, applied to Carnot, the
great war minister of the French Revolution, is one that it is well for
military and naval officers to bear constantly in mind. "Carnot," he
says, although a soldier by profession, "was rather a man with a natural
genius for war than an accomplished (_instruit_) officer;" and to the
lack of that studious preparation which marked Napoleon he attributes
the mistakes which characterized some of Carnot's projects, although as
a whole his career showed profound intuitions in the conduct of war. It
is open to many able men to be accomplished and valuable officers; a few
only--how few, the annals of the past show--receive the rare natural
gifts which in their perfect combination make the great captain the
highest manifestation of power attainable by human faculties.

The acquirements of the accomplished officer may enable him to see the
right thing to be done under given conditions, and yet fail to lift him
to the height of due performance. It is in the strength of purpose, in
the power of rapid decision, of instant act