dent of the United States, whatever occasion came to Washington he was ready to meet it, and did what was laid upon him with balanced judgment, unfaltering serenity, unselfish integrity, and that perfect command of himself that gave him command of men and of powers. The great men of his time who were nearest him most honored him; the people loved and revered him; humanity has adopted him. The hearts of all peoples, sated with the fame of captains and heroes, look up to Washington as the man. Humanity finds its highest hope in the realization in him of its own ideal. And it is a high hope for humanity that it accepts him as its type of greatness; for, in the words of Brougham, "until time shall be no more will a test of the progress which our race has made in wisdom and virtue be derived from the veneration paid to the immortal name of Washington." America, at least, can have no higher for her he shall stand "first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

NOTE ON FREDERIC AND NAPOLEON.

Ar the close of this Lecture in Berlin, one German lady said to another, "How can you endure to hear Frederic the Great spoken of so slightingly? This may all be true: but he was every thing to us; and it seems like exposing the faults of one's father."

"But," answered the other, "this picture of Frederic is true. My grandfather was in his service for many years, first as page, then as officer; and in our family we always knew of these unhappy traits of Frederic's character. It is all too true; and why shouldn't it be said?"

When the conversation was reported to me, I contented myself with saying, "If the judgment is not correct, it can't hurt Frederic's reputation with you; and, if it is true, his reputation ought still to be great enough to bear it."

I would not be wanting in respect for the devotion that clings to a national hero in spite of his defects, and even refuses to see any dimness in the halo of his fame. Indeed, I may as well confess to a cosmopolitan weakness for everybody's heroes." An advocate of peace, I have, however, no sympathy with the spirit that denounces all military heroes as scourges of mankind, and that will not allow that war can ever be a school of true greatness. But there is a standard of heroic judgment higher than military achievement, even among the

heroes of battle; and when we are weighing men in the scale of history, with a view to selecting models for after-ages, we must do justice, though the heavens fall. And surely, if justice is done, some stars must either fall from heaven, or be greatly changed as to position and magnitude.

"Only on the sad

Cold earth there are who say

It seemeth better to be great than glad."

It is not easy for an American to enter into the enthusiasm for military glory that still possesses the more intellectual portion of society on the continent of Europe. Under the conditions of modern warfare that have so nearly reduced war to an exact science, and armies to calculating machines, there is far less opportunity for strokes of military genius than in the days of Frederic and of Napoleon. But the glorification of the military spirit survives in the homage paid in so many countries to the army as the foremost representative of the national life and power: hence, in estimating historical characters, and ranging heroes in the Walhalla, the European is apt to have another standard from the American, who is trained to look for greatness rather in high moral qualities, and in devotion to mankind. A striking and really a touching instance of the military estimate of life lies before me at this moment. The venerable FieldMarshal Count Wrangel has just completed the eightieth year of his military service, having entered the army at the age of thirteen. the celebration of this so unusual anniversary, his Majesty the Emperor sent him the following letter:

At

MY DEAR GENERAL FIELD-MARSHAL, The festive remembrancers of your most active life more and more take on the character of a specially favoring Providence. The jubilee of your fifty-years' service, most commonly the close of a military life, lies to-day thirty years behind you; and in these thirty years lie such great services and such eminent deeds, that with you the fiftieth-year jubilee has marked only the beginning of the second division of your famous career. To-day it is full eighty years that you have worn with such distinction the honorable dress of the soldier; and above all things must you to-day be filled with deep emotion at the grace of Almighty God, who has honored you above so many others, in that you are able to look back over so long a time of most praiseworthy activity. To him, the gracious God, before all, be the honor of this day's festival. But I speak not for myself alone, but as the heir of three kings, as deeply moved I to-day thank you in the name of those kings, to whom you have kept the oath of fidelity in such an exemplary manner, and whom you have served with such signality and devotion, that your name for all time will hold an honored place in the history of the Prussian army. That with my whole heart I number you with the prominent men whom the Prussian army has produced, I wish to-day to prove by apprising you that I have concluded at a future day to erect a statue of you, that thereby the latest posterity may retain the knowledge of your services, and my appreciation of them.

As a remembrancer of this day I send you the accompanying sword, the weapon that you have worn for eighty years, with which at Etoges, with your regiment, you cut through the enemy, and which has everywhere shown the troops that you have led the way to victory. As the statue to the world, so may the sword to your remote posterity bear witness of the gratitude and special esteem of

Your grateful, devoted king,

WILHELM.

This beautiful example of life-long loyalty and of royal friendship will be its own monument in history, - honorable alike to the subject and the king. Its influence upon all younger officers will be mcst stimulating. Said one of these to me the other day, "You republicans cannot know the sentiment of personal loyalty to the king. This devotion is the life of an officer; and there is something in it so very noble and fine." Here was a spirit that would never stop to inquire whether a king was right or wrong; whether the cause is noble or base, just or cruel. This is the true spirit of the soldier. We find it admirably expressed by Gen. Sherman in his answers to the congressional committee upon the employment of troops in the South. The Chairman. The object of my inquiry was to ascertain whether troops could be spared from the South to re-enforce the army in the Indian country.

Gen. Sherman. I am compelled to answer that they cannot be spared, because those who are intrusted with power judge their presence there necessary. That decision to me is sacred and final, and governs me.

Mr. Terry. You do not, however, say that it is your judgment. Gen. Sherman.· -It is hardly right to ask a soldier for his opinion. Behind his duty he ought not to form an opinion.

This is the only doctrine for a soldier. One can respect it, and honor the man who is true to it. Without this, there could be no military discipline; and, so long as an army is needed for police or for defence, it is vital to the public safety and order that this unquestioning loyalty should be maintained. The saying of Kossuth, "Bayonets think," marks the subversion of all military order and authority.

But, while heartily conceding this, I rejoice yet more heartily that American youth are not trained to look upon the dress of a soldier as honorable, irrespective of the master or the cause he serves, - much less to look upon the mere trade of soldiering as honorable at all; that to them a retrospect of battles and victories, a name in the ariny, and a memorial sword, are not held up as objects of ambition, the motive of life, and the solace of age. Thank God, they breathe another atmosphere, and have before them another standard of heroism, honor, and greatness. It is by such a standard - that of devotion to freedom, to justice, and to man—that I have attempted to measure Frederic, Napoleon, and Washington. What did they severally attempt? and with what motive? What did they achieve? and to what end? Much as we may concede to the soldier in loyalty to his calling, we may not forget that Frederic and Napoleon had often the game of war in their own hands, could make war or peace at their own will; and hence their ruling motives and aims must be taken into account in judging even of their military achievements. These last must not be suffered to overbalance those obligations of humanity that attend the possession of great genius and power.

Much must be excused in Frederic because of the unhappy experiences of his youth, and the complications of his political inheritance. It is a marvel these had not suppressed all the tenderness and mag

nanimity that were in his nature. His official utterances on coming to the throne were, no doubt, sincere intentions, formed before the actual experience of power: "Our grand care will be to further the country's well-being, and to make every one of our subjects contented and happy. . . . My will henceforth is, if it ever chance that my particular interest and the general good of my countries should seem to go against each other, in that case my will is that the latter always be preferred." This was honest and noble. But, as he went on in life, Frederic avoided any such collision by the simple expedient of making the good of his country identical with his own will, himself being supreme actor and judge. I have said that his personality was an intensified patriotism; but, mutatis mutandis, his patriotism could also be an exaggerated selfhood. Frederic performed prodigies for Prussia; yet some of her own historians and perhaps his Royal Highness the Crown Prince inclines to their view- -are of opinion, that, under the peculiar difficulties of his position, the Great Elector showed even more of military genius and administrative capacity. Frederic put his own stirring impulses into every thing he touched, into laws, trade, letters, arts, as well as arms. He was indeed the soul of the nation that he filled with a life so grand, so potent, and so lustrous.

His famous secret instructions of Jan. 10, 1757, to Count Finck, bring into fine relief Frederic's self-sacrifice for his country, and may offset a good deal of personal vanity: "If I should have the fatality to be taken prisoner by the enemy, I prohibit all of you from paying the least regard to my person, or taking the least heed of what I might write from my place of detention. Should such misfortune happen ine, I wish to sacrifice myself for the State; and you must obey my brother, who, as well as all my ministers and generals, shall answer to me with their heads not to offer any province or any ransom for me, but to continue the war, pushing their advantages, as if I never had existed in the world." This, again, is both frank and fine. But, when we apply to Frederic the touchstone of an unselfish devotion to freedom and to man, he fails where Washington stands; and, without depreciating Frederic, I have simply shown that Washington attained to a higher standard in nobleness of character, and greatness of achievement. Those who prefer the rose-colored view of Frederic will find this at its best in Mr. Bancroft's tenth volume,1 and at high-flown intensity in Carlyle's "History of Frederic the Second." In corroboration of the view taken in the Lecture, and indeed going quite beyond it, I here quote a few lines from a critic, who in keenness of insight, and calmness of judgment, is unsurpassed, Mr. James Russell Lowell:

--

Friedrich was doubtless a remarkable man, but surely very far below any lofty standard of heroic greatness. He was the last of the European kings who could look upon his kingdom as his private patrimony; and it was this estate of his, this piece of property, which he so obstinately and successfully defended. He had no idea of country as it was understood by an ancient Greek or Roman, as it

1 Chap. iii. p. 97 seq.

is understood by a modern Englishman or American. . . . We doubt if Friedrich would have been liked as a private person, or even as an unsuccessful king. He apparently attached very few people to himself, — fewer even than his brutal old Squire Western of a father.. In spite of Mr. Carlyle's adroit statement of the case, we feel that his hero was essentially hard, narrow, and selfish. . . . The kingship that was in him, and which won Mr. Carlyle to be his biographer, is that of will merely, of rapid and relentless command." Without indorsing this to the full, let me earnestly recommend all who have waded through Carlyle's "Frederic" to read Lowell's critique in his Study Windows."

66

Napoleon, like Frederic, had in his youth some noble sentiments of freedom, progress, and universal good-will; but like Frederic, too, he was not principled enough in his higher nature to withstand the lust of domination. In his moody complaints to his brother Joseph, when his mind had been poisoned with suspicions of Josephine, Napoleon touched bottom in his own soul. "I am tired of human nature. I want solitude and isolation. Greatness fatigues me: feeling is dried up. At twenty-nine, glory has become flat. I have exhausted every thing. I have no refuge but pure selfishness." 1 This "refuge" of despondency becomes his tower of strength in supremacy. Seven years later he could write, My people will always be of one opinion when it knows that I am pleased, because that proves that its interests have been protected." "2 "I take the greatest interest in your prosperity, and particularly in your glory. In your position, it is the first of wants: without it, life can have no charm." 3 "If you do not begin [as King of Italy] by making yourself feared, you will suffer for it." 4 “There is nothing sacred after a conquest.' "I hope, that, by setting to work earnestly to form a good army and fleet, you will assist me to become master of the Mediterranean, which is the chief and perpetual aim of my policy. ... I would rather have ten years of war than allow your kingdom to remain incomplete, and Sicily in dispute.” 6 "To die is not your business, but to live and to conquer. I shall find in Spain the pillars of Hercules, but not the limits of my power."7

Just now, Europe is filled with indignation at the outrages committed in Bulgaria by the Turkish army. Seventy years ago, Napoleon, as the conqueror of Italy, had forced upon the people of Naples his brother Joseph as king, much as Louis Napoleon attempted to force Maximilian upon the Mexicans. Neapolitans who resisted this foreign king, upheld by a foreign army, were denounced by Napoleon as rebels; and here are the measures he urged upon his mild and humane brother: "I am glad to see that a village of the insurgents has been burnt. Severe examples are necessary. I presume that the soldiers have been allowed to plunder this village. This is the way to treat villages which revolt." 8 "I am impatient to hear that you have occupied Cassano. Besides this, you should order two or three

1 Letters to Joseph, July 25, 1798.

3 Ibid., Feb. 7, 1806.

2 Ibid., Dec. 15, 1805. 4 Ibid., March 3, 1806.

5 Ibid., March 31, 1806. 6 Ibid., July 21, 1806. 7 Ibid., July 31, 1808.

8 Ibid., April 21, 1806.