y was
monotonous and halting. He often hesitated, searching for a word; but
when it came, it usually seemed the only word that could have expressed
his meaning, and the hesitation that preceded it gave it a singular
emphasis. It seemed to be his aim to convince his hearers, not to win
them; his appeal was regularly to their intelligence, not to their
emotions. When the energy and warmth of his own feelings had carried him
into something like a flight of oratory, there was apt to follow, at the
next moment, some plain matter-of-fact statement that brought the
discussion back at once to its ordinary level. Such an anti-climax was
often very effective: the obvious effort of the speaker to keep his
emotions under restraint vouched for the sincerity of the preceding
outburst. It should be added that he appreciated as few Germans do the
rhetorical value of understatement.

He was undoubtedly at his literary best in conversation and in his
letters. We have several volumes of Bismarck anecdotes, Bismarck
table-talk, etc. The best known are those of Busch, which have been
translated into English--and in spite of the fact that his sayings come
to us at second hand and colored by the personality of the transmitter,
we recognize the qualities which, by the universal testimony of those
who knew him, made him one of the most fascinating of talkers. These
qualities, however, come out most clearly in a little volume of letters
('Bismarck briefe'), chiefly addressed to his wife. (These letters have
been excellently translated into English by F. Maxse.) They are
characterized throughout by vivid and graphic descriptions, a subtle
sense of humor, and real wit; and they have in the highest degree--far
more than his State papers or speeches--the literary quality, and that
indescribable something which we call style.

Bismarck furnishes, once for all, the answer to the old French question,
whether a German can possibly have _esprit_--witness his response to the
German prince who desired his advice regarding the offer of the crown of
one of the Balkan States:--"Accept, by all means: it will be a charming
recollection for you." He possessed also to a high degree the power of
summing up a situation or characterizing a movement in a single phrase;
and his sayings have enriched the German language with more quotations
than the spoken words of any German since Luther.

Of the numerous German biographies, Harm's gives the greatest amount of
docu