its historic capital, but, unrecognized for the moment,
then came in that reign of organized and disciplined force, the full
effect and function of which in the future men still only dimly
discern. The successive rapid overthrows of the Austrian and French
empires by military efficiency and skill; the beating in detail two
separate foes who, united, might have been too strong for the victor;
the consequent crumbling of the papal monarchy when French support was
withdrawn, following closely on the Vatican Decree of Infallibility;
these things produced an impression which was transmitted rapidly
throughout the world of European civilization, till in the Farther
East it reached Japan. Into the current thus established the petty
stream of my own fortunes was drawn, little anticipated by myself. To
it was due my special call; for by it was created the predisposition
to recognize the momentous bearing of maritime force upon the course
of history, which insured me a hearing when the fulness of my time was
come.

Until 1870 my life since graduation had been passed afloat almost
without interruption. Soon afterwards I obtained command rank; and
this promotion, combined with the dead apathy which after the War of
Secession settled upon our people with regard to the navy, left me
with relatively little active employment for several years. In
America, the naval stagnation of that period was something now almost
incredible. The echoes of the guns which from Koeniggraetz and a dozen
battle-fields in France had resounded round the globe, awakening the
statesmen of all countries, had apparently ricochetted over the United
States, as fog sound-signals are noticed to rebound overhead, unheard
through long stretches of the sea-level, until they again touch the
water beyond. The nation slumbered peacefully in its "_petit coin_,"
to use the expressive phrase of a French admiral to me. Had even
nothing been done, this inertness might have been less significant;
but somewhere in the early seventies, despite all the progress
elsewhere noticeable, there were built deliberately some half-dozen
corvettes, smaller than the _Iroquois_ class, mostly of wood. That a
period of lethargy in action should steal over a government just
released from strenuous exertion is one thing, and bad enough; but it
is different, and much worse, that there should be a paralysis of
idea, of mental development corresponding to the movement of the
world.

I myself ha