e I have
contributed to the particular period something new in both material
and interpretation. But, whatever value the book may possess to one
already drawn to the subject, it is impossible to infuse charm where
from the facts of the case it does not exist. As a Chinese
portrait-painter is said to have remonstrated with a discontented
patron, "How can pretty face make, when pretty face no have got?"

Thus my orders to the _Chicago_ led to dropping 1812, and to this my
_Life of Nelson_ was directly due. The project had already occurred to
me, for the conspicuous elements of human as well as professional
interest could not well escape one who had just been following him
closely in his military career. _Sea Power in the French Revolution_
having been published less than six months before, the framework of
external events, into which his actions must be fitted, was fresh in
my recollection, as was also the analysis of his campaigns and
battles, available at once for fuller treatment, more directly
biographical. After consultation with my publishers I decided to
undertake the work, and with reference to it chiefly I provided myself
reading-matter. I have already said that the experiment of writing on
board did not succeed. I composed part of the first chapter and then
stopped; but the purpose remained, and was resumed very soon after
leaving the _Chicago_, in May, 1895.

For the writing of biography I had formed a theory of my own, a
guiding principle, closely akin to the part which sea power had played
in my treatment of history. This leading idea was not intended to
exclude other points of view or manners of presentation, but was to
subordinate them somewhat peremptorily. As defined to myself, my plan
was to realize personality by living with the man, in as close
familiarity as was consistent with the fact of his being dead. This
was to be done first, for myself, as the necessary prelude to
transmission to my readers. When there remains a huge mass of
correspondence, by one as frank in utterance and copious in
self-revelation as was Nelson, the opportunity to get on terms of such
intimacy is unique, one-sided though the communication is. Besides,
companions and subordinates have left abundant records of their
association with him, which constitute, as it were, the other side of
conversation; relieving the monologue of his own letters. The first
thing in order is to know the living man; and it seemed to me that,
with s