History_, coincides precisely with this period, and may thus have
been determined. I think, however, that the beginning of the work was
fixed for me by the essentially new departure in the history of
England and France, connoted by the almost simultaneous accession of
Charles II. and Louis XIV.; while the end was dictated by the
necessity to stop and take breath. Besides, I had to lecture, which
for the moment interrupted both reading and writing. The particular
value of Martin to me was the attention paid by him to commercial and
maritime policy, as shown in those frank methods of national
regulation which in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
characterized all governments, but were to be seen in their simplest
and most efficient executive operation in an absolute monarchy. A more
advanced age may doubt the wisdom of such manipulation of trade; but
in the hands of a genius like Colbert it became a very active and
powerful force, the workings of which were the more impressive for
their directness. They could be easily followed. Whatever Martin's
views on political economy, he was in profound sympathy with Colbert
as an administrator, and enlarged much on his commercial policy as
conducing to the financial stability upon which that great statesman
sought to found the primacy of his country. To one as ignorant as I
was of mercantile movement, the story of Colbert's methods, owing to
their pure autocracy, was a kind of introductory primer to this
element of sea power. Thus received, the impression was both sharper
and deeper. New light was shed upon, and new emphasis given to, the
commonplace assertion of the relations between commerce and a navy;
civil and military sea power. While I have no claim to mastery of the
arguments for and against free trade and protection, Colbert, as
expounded by Martin, sent me in later days to the study of trade
statistics; as indicative of naval or political conditions deflecting
commercial interchange, and influencing national prosperity. The
strong interest such searches had for me may show a natural bent, and
certainly conduced to the understanding of sea power in its broadest
sense. Martin set my feet in the way, though Campbell helped me much
by incidental mention.

It is now accepted with naval and military men who study their
profession, that history supplies the raw material from which they are
to draw their lessons, and reach their working conclusions. Its
teachings are not,