THE Life of Nelson has been written so often, that
an explanation -- almost an apology -- seems
due for any renewal of the attempt; but, not to
mention the attractiveness of the theme in itself, it is
essential to the completeness and rounding off of the
author's discussion of the Influence of Sea Power,
that he present a study, from his own point of view,
of the one man who in himself summed up and
embodied the greatness of the possibilities which Sea
Power comprehends, -- the man for whom genius and
opportunity worked together, to make him the per-
sonification of the Navy of Great Britain, the domi-
nant factor in the periods hitherto treated. In the
century and a half embraced in those periods, the
tide of influence and of power has swelled higher
and higher, floating upward before the eyes of man-
kind many a distinguished name; but it is not until
their close that one arises in whom all the promises
of the past find their finished realization, their per-
fect fulfilment. Thenceforward the name of Nelson
is enrolled among those few presented to us by
History, the simple mention of which suggests, not
merely a personality, or a career, but a great force

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