genius, as also he gives no sign of its inspiration,--of
originality. He is seen at his strongest in dealing stage by stage with
difficult situations created for him, following step by step, and step
by step checking, the lead of another; his action being elicited by
successive circumstances, not deriving from some creative, far-reaching
conception of his own. The temperament is one eminently practical,
capable on due opportunity of very great deeds, as Howe showed; for,
having improved much native capacity by the constant cultivation of
professional knowledge, and with the self-confidence which naturally
springs from such acquisition, he rose readily to the level of exertion
demanded by any emergency not in excess of his abilities, and so long as
the need lasted maintained himself there easily, without consciousness
of exhaustive effort, or apprehension of improbable contingencies.
"Never hasting, never resting," might be safely affirmed of him.

He is seen therefore at his best in a defensive campaign, such as that
against D'Estaing in the summer of 1778, which in the writer's opinion
was his greatest achievement; or again in a great deliberate operation
like the relief of Gibraltar,--the one of his deeds most esteemed, it is
said, by himself,--protracted over a month in its performance, and
essentially defensive in character, not only because of the much
superior fleet of the enemies, but because the adverse forces of nature
and the obstinate incapacity of the captains of supply ships had to be
counteracted by unremitting watchfulness, foresight, and skill, dealing
however with conditions determined for him, not imposed by his own
initiative; or, finally, in the chase and partial actions of May 28 and
29, 1794, in which persistence, endurance, and aptitude are alike and
equally displayed, assuring to him beyond dispute the credit of a great
tactician. Accordingly, in direct consequence of what has been noted, it
is as a tactician, and not as a strategist, that he can claim rank; for
whatever may be the fundamental identity of principles in the military
art, whether applied to strategy or to tactics, it in the end remains
true that the tactician deals with circumstances immediately before him
and essentially transient, while the strategist has to take wider views
of more lasting conditions, and into them to introduce his own
conceptions to be modifying factors. Creative thought and faculty of
initiation are therefore m