The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of Nelson, Vol. I (of 2)
by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

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Title: The Life of Nelson, Vol. I (of 2)
The Embodiment of the Sea Power of Great Britain

Author: A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

Release Date: October 21, 2005 [EBook #16914]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE LIFE OF NELSON

THE EMBODIMENT OF THE SEA POWER OF GREAT BRITAIN

BY

CAPTAIN A.T. MAHAN, D.C.L., LL.D.
UNITED STATES NAVY

AUTHOR OF
"THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON HISTORY, 1660-1783,"
"THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND EMPIRE,"
AND OF A "LIFE OF ADMIRAL FARRAGUT"

IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. I.

LONDON
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, & COMPANY, _LIMITED_
1897

PREFACE.

The Life of Nelson has been written so often, that an
explanation--almost an apology--seems due for any renewal of the
attempt; but, not to mention the attractiveness of the theme in
itself, it is essential to the completeness and rounding off of the
author's discussion of the Influence of Sea Power, that he present a
study, from his own point of view, of the one man who in himself
summed up and embodied the greatness of the possibilities which Sea
Power comprehends,--the man for whom genius and opportunity worked
together, to make him the personification of the Navy of Great
Britain, the dominant factor in the periods hitherto treated. In the
century and a half embraced in those periods, the tide of influence
and of power has swelled higher and higher, floating upward before the
eyes of mankind many a distinguished name; but it is not until their
close that one arises in whom all the promises of the past find their
finished realization, their perfect fulfilment. Thenceforward the name
of Nelson is enrolled among those few presented to us by History, the
simple mention of which suggests, not merely a personality or a
career, but a great force or a great era concrete in a single man, who
is its standard-bearer before the nations.

Yet, in this