no rival in his heart; there is no suggestion of an
inward struggle between two masters, no feeling of aloneness, no
petulant discontent with uneasy surroundings, or longing for the
presence of an absent mistress. The quiet English home, the "little
but neat cottage," attracts, indeed, with its sense of repose,--"I
shall not be very sorry to see England again. I am grown old and
battered to pieces, and require some repairs "--but the magnet fails
to deflect the needle; not even a perceptible vibration of the will is
produced.

Yet, while thus engrossed in the war, eager for personal distinction
and for the military honor of his country, he apparently sees in it
little object beyond a mere struggle for superiority, and has no
conception of the broader and deeper issues at stake, the recognition
of which intensified and sustained the resolution of the peace-loving
minister, who then directed the policy of Great Britain. Of this he
himself gives the proof in a curious anecdote. An Algerine official
visiting the "Captain" off Leghorn, Nelson asked him why the Dey would
not make peace with the Genoese and Neapolitans, for they would pay
well for immunity, as the Americans at that period always did. His
answer was: "If we make peace with every one, what is the Dey to do
with his ships?" "What a reason for carrying on a naval war!" said
Nelson, when writing the story to Jervis; "but has our minister a
better one for the present?" Jervis, a traditional Whig, and opposed
in Parliament to the war, probably sympathized with this view, and in
any case the incident shows the close confidence existing between the
two officers; but it also indicates how narrowly Nelson's genius and
unquestionable acuteness cL intellect confined themselves, at that
time, to the sphere in which he was visibly acting. In this he
presents a marked contrast to Bonaparte, whose restless intelligence
and impetuous imagination reached out in many directions, and surveyed
from a lofty height the bearing of all things, far and near, upon the
destinies of France.

FOOTNOTES:

[35] This indicates no opinion as to the fortune of the military operations
in England, a landing once effected. It has, however, seemed to the author
singular that men fail to consider that Napoleon would not have hesitated
to abandon an army in England, as he did in Egypt and in Russia. A few
hours' fog or calm, and a quick-pulling boat, would have landed himself
again in France; whil