less gifted, might, it is true, have failed to
fill the new sphere which the future was to present. Nelson proved
fully equal to it, because he possessed genius for war, intellectual
faculties, which, though not unsuspected, had not hitherto been
allowed scope for their full exercise. Before him was now about to
open a field of possibilities hitherto unexampled in naval warfare;
and for the appreciation of them was needed just those perceptions,
intuitive in origin, yet resting firmly on well-ordered rational
processes, which, on the intellectual side, distinguished him above
all other British seamen. He had already, in casual comment upon the
military conditions surrounding the former Mediterranean campaigns,
given indications of these perceptions, which it has been the aim of
previous chapters to elicit from his correspondence, and to marshal in
such order as may illustrate his mental characteristics. But, for
success in war, the indispensable complement of intellectual grasp and
insight is a moral power, which enables a man to trust the inner
light,--to have faith,--a power which dominates hesitation, and
sustains action, in the most tremendous emergencies, and which, from
the formidable character of the difficulties it is called to confront,
is in no men so conspicuously prominent as in those who are entitled
to rank among great captains. The two elements--mental and moral
power--are often found separately, rarely in due combination. In
Nelson they met, and their coincidence with the exceptional
opportunities afforded him constituted his good fortune and his
greatness.

The intellectual endowment of genius was Nelson's from the first; but
from the circumstances of his life it was denied the privilege of
early manifestation, such as was permitted to Napoleon. It is,
consequently, not so much this as the constant exhibition of moral
power, force of character, which gives continuity to his professional
career, and brings the successive stages of his advance, in
achievement and reputation, from first to last, into the close
relation of steady development, subject to no variation save that of
healthy and vigorous growth, till he stood unique--above all
competition. This it was--not, doubtless, to the exclusion of that
reputation for having a head, upon which he justly prided
himself--which had already fixed the eyes of his superiors upon him as
the one officer, not yet indeed fully tested, most likely to cope with
the