t; counterfeiting Jove's thunder to an amazing degree! Terrific
Drawcansir figures, of enormous whiskerage, unlimited command of
gunpowder; not without sufficient ferocity, and even a certain heroism,
stage-heroism, in them; compared with whom, to the shilling-gallery, and
frightened excited theatre at large, it seemed as if there had been
no generals or sovereigns before; as if Friedrich, Gustavus, Cromwell,
William Conqueror and Alexander the Great were not worth speaking of
henceforth.

All this, however, in half a century is considerably altered. The
Drawcansir equipments getting gradually torn off, the natural size is
seen better; translated from the bulletin style into that of fact and
history, miracles, even to the shilling-gallery, are not so miraculous.
It begins to be apparent that there lived great men before the era
of bulletins and Agamemnon. Austerlitz and Wagram shot away more
gunpowder,--gunpowder probably in the proportion of ten to one, or a
hundred to one; but neither of them was tenth-part such a beating to
your enemy as that of Rossbach, brought about by strategic art, human
ingenuity and intrepidity, and the loss of 165 men. Leuthen, too, the
battle of Leuthen (though so few English readers ever heard of it) may
very well hold up its head beside any victory gained by Napoleon or
another. For the odds were not far from three to one; the soldiers were
of not far from equal quality; and only the General was consummately
superior, and the defeat a destruction. Napoleon did indeed, by immense
expenditure of men, and gunpowder, overrun Europe for a time: but
Napoleon never, by husbanding and wisely expending his men and
gunpowder, defended a little Prussia against all Europe, year after year
for seven years long, till Europe had enough, and gave up the enterprise
as one it could not manage. So soon as the Drawcansir equipments are
well torn off, and the shilling-gallery got to silence, it will be found
that there were great kings before Napoleon,--and likewise an Art
of War, grounded on veracity and human courage and insight, not upon
Drawcansir rodomontade, grandiose Dick-Turpinism, revolutionary madness,
and unlimited expenditure of men and gunpowder. "You may paint with a
very big brush, and yet not be a great painter," says a satirical friend
of mine! This is becoming more and more apparent, as the dust-whirlwind,
and huge uproar of the last generation, gradually dies away again.

2. EIGHTEENT