ace, and a hand forced by a wilful
spirit of aggression which momentarily had lost the balance of its
reason. Making every allowance for the extravagances of the French
rulers, unpractised in government and driven by a burning sense of
mission to universal mankind, it was to me evident that their demands
upon other nations, and notably upon Great Britain, were subversive of
all public order and law, and of international security.

Pitt's proud resolution to withstand to the uttermost this tendency,
coupled with his evident passionate clinging to peace as the basis of
his life ambition, constituted to my apprehension a tragedy; of lofty
personal aim and effort wrestling with, and slowly done to death by,
opposing conditions too mighty for man. The dramatic intensity of the
situation was increased by the absence of the external dramatic appeal
characteristic of his father. It carried the force of emotion
suppressed. The bitter inner disappointment is veiled under the
reserve of his private life and the reticence of his public utterance,
which give to his personality a certain remoteness from usual joys and
sorrows; but, the veil once pierced by sympathy, the human side of the
younger Pitt stands revealed as of one who, without complaint, bore no
common burden, did no common work, and to whom fell no common share of
the suffering which arises from disappointment and frustration, in
ideals and achievement. The conflict of the two motives in the man's
steadfast nature aroused in me an enthusiasm which I did not seek to
check; for I believe enthusiasm no bad spirit in which to realize
history to yourself or others. It tends to bias; but bias can be
controlled. Enthusiasm has its place, not for action only, nor for
speaking, but in writing and in appreciation; quite as critical
analysis and judicial impartiality have theirs. To deny either is to
err. The moment of exaltation gone, the dispassionate intellect may
sit in judgment upon the expressions of thought and feeling which have
been prompted by the stirring of the mind; but without this there
lacks one element of true presentation. The height of full recognition
for a great event, or a great personality, has not been reached. The
swelling of the breast under strong emotion uplifts understanding.
Under such influence a writer is to the extent of his faculties on the
level of his theme. As for biography, I would no more attempt to write
that of a man for whom I felt no warm