1 88 CARLYLE. 



beyond modern instances, he does not impress us with the 

 massive breadth of Napoleon, nor attract us with the climb 

 ing ardour of Turenne. To compare him with Alexander 

 or Csesar were absurd. 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. For organisation 

 he had a masterly talent ; but he could not apply it to the 

 arts of peace, both because he wanted experience and 

 because the rash decision of the battle-field will not serve 

 in matters which are governed by natural laws of growth. 

 He seems, indeed, to have had a coarse, soldier s contempt 

 for all civil distinction, altogether unworthy of a wise king, 

 or even of a prudent one He confers the title of Hofrath 

 on the husband of a woman with whom his General Wai- 

 rave is living in what Mr. Carlyle justly calls &quot;brutish 

 polygamy,&quot; and this at &quot;Walrave s request, on the ground 

 that &quot;a general s drab ought to have a handle to her name.&quot; 

 Mr. Carlyle murmurs in a mild parenthesis that &quot; we rather 

 regret this ! &quot; (Vol. iii. p. 559.) This is his usual way of 

 treating unpleasant matters, sidling by with a deprecating 

 shrug of the shoulders. Not that he ever wilfully sup 

 presses anything. On the contrary, there is no greater 

 proof of his genius than the way in which, while he seems 

 to paint a character with all its disagreeable traits, he con 

 trives to win our sympathy for it, nay, almost our liking. 

 This is conspicuously true of his portrait of Friedrich s 

 father ; and that he does not succeed in making Friedrich 

 himself attractive is a strong argument with us that the 

 fault is in the subject and not the artist. 



The book, we believe, has been comparatively unsuccess 

 ful as a literary venture. Nor do we wonder at it. It is 

 disproportionately long, and too much made up of those 

 descriptions of battles to read which seems even more 

 difficult than to have won the victory itself, more dis 

 heartening than to have suffered the defeat. To an Ameri 

 can, also, the warfare seemed Lilliputian in the presence of 

 a conflict so much larger in its proportions and significant 

 in its results. The interest, moreover, flags decidedly 



