SOUTH AFRICA 39 



which had hitherto, in battles, been the equivalent 

 ot an additional division to his army. He of 

 course failed to realise his ambition. No man can 

 become greatly distinguished without ambition. 

 That word has a purely political origin : its real 

 mcaninor is "oroincj round to solicit votes for an 

 election to a civic office among the Romans." 

 Napoleon's ambition was certainly in its first 

 inception entirely selfish. It was power he wanted 

 and he unquestionably gained it. His dictum that 

 " knowledge is power" was vindicated to the full in 

 his marvellous career, in his intuitive knowledge of 

 war and organisation, and in his unfailingly correct 

 judgment of men and his alertness in making 

 the best of every situation that presented itself. 

 Absorbing wisdom day by day, assimilating and 

 digesting every lesson that life could teach him, 

 he developed an intellect unequalled among men. 

 His wonderful career was compressed into about 

 twenty-five years of his active life. 



All biographers who have written of Rhodes 

 draw analogies between him and greatly dis- 

 tinguished men. Sir Lewis Michell compares 

 him to the Caesars, Napoleon and Clive. 



Mr Gordon Le Suer, one of his biographers, 

 says: "There was a strange facial resemblance 

 between Rhodes and some of the Roman Caesars." 

 Thus it seems that physiognomy and phrenology 



