it did, the generous
and kindly temper of his heart. "The personal appearance of Captain
Nelson at this period of his life, owing to his delicate health and
diminutive figure, was far from expressing the greatness of his
intellectual powers. From his earliest years, like Cleomenes, the hero
of Sparta, he had been enamoured of glory, and had possessed a
greatness of mind. Nelson preserved, also, a similar temperance and
simplicity of manners. Nature, as Plutarch adds of the noble Spartan,
had given a spur to his mind which rendered him impetuous in the
pursuit of whatever he deemed honourable. The demeanour of this
extraordinary young man was entirely the demeanour of a British
seaman; when the energies of his mind were not called forth by some
object of duty, or professional interest, he seemed to retire within
himself, and to care but little for the refined courtesies of polished
life." No saving sense of humor seems to have suggested that the
profane might here ask, "Is this the British seaman?" "In his dress he
had all the cleanliness of an Englishman, though his manner of wearing
it gave him an air of negligence; and yet his general address and
conversation, when he wished to please, possessed a charm that was
irresistible."[2]

In June, 1779, when posted into the "Hinchinbrook," Nelson wanted
still three months of being twenty-one. By the custom of the British
Navy, then and now, promotions from the grade of Captain to that of
Admiral are made by seniority only. Once a captain, therefore, a man's
future was assured, so far as concerned the possibility of juniors
passing over his head,--neither favor nor merit could procure that;
his rank relatively to others was finally fixed. The practical
difficulty of getting at a captain of conspicuous ability, to make of
him a flag-officer, was met by one of those clumsy yet adequate
expedients by which the practical English mind contrives to reconcile
respect for precedent with the demands of emergency. There being then
no legal limit to the number of admirals, a promotion was in such case
made of all captains down to and including the one wanted; and Lord
St. Vincent, one of the most thorough-going of naval statesmen, is
credited with the declaration that he would promote a hundred down the
list of captains, if necessary, to reach the one demanded by the needs
of the country. Even with this rough-riding over obstacles,--for the
other officers promoted, however useful in th