ings which cast an affecting lustre over the
harsher, more heroic qualities wherewith they are combined. His
treason to the Emperor is a crime, for which, provoked and tempted as
he was, we do not greatly blame him; it is forgotten in our admiration
of his nobleness, or recollected only as a venial trespass. Schiller
has succeeded well with Wallenstein, where it was not easy to succeed.
The truth of history has been but little violated; yet we are
compelled to feel that Wallenstein, whose actions individually are
trifling, unsuccessful, and unlawful, is a strong, sublime, commanding
character; we look at him with interest, our concern at his fate is
tinged with a shade of kindly pity.

In Octavio Piccolomini, his war-companion, we can find less fault, yet
we take less pleasure. Octavio's qualities are chiefly negative: he
rather walks by the letter of the moral law, than by its spirit; his
conduct is externally correct, but there is no touch of generosity
within. He is more of the courtier than of the soldier: his weapon is
intrigue, not force. Believing firmly that 'whatever is, is best,' he
distrusts all new and extraordinary things; he has no faith in human
nature, and seems to be virtuous himself more by calculation than by
impulse. We scarcely thank him for his loyalty; serving his Emperor,
he ruins and betrays his friend: and, besides, though he does not own
it, personal ambition is among his leading motives; he wishes to be
general and prince, and Wallenstein is not only a traitor to his
sovereign, but a bar to this advancement. It is true, Octavio does not
personally tempt him towards his destruction; but neither does he
warn him from it; and perhaps he knew that fresh temptation was
superfluous. Wallenstein did not deserve such treatment from a man
whom he had trusted as a brother, even though such confidence was
blind, and guided by visions and starry omens. Octavio is a skilful,
prudent, managing statesman; of the kind praised loudly, if not
sincerely, by their friends, and detested deeply by their enemies. His
object may be lawful or even laudable; but his ways are crooked; we
dislike him but the more that we know not positively how to blame him.

Octavio Piccolomini and Wallenstein are, as it were, the two opposing
forces by which this whole universe of military politics is kept in
motion. The struggle of magnanimity and strength combined with
treason, against cunning and apparent virtue, aided by law, giv