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146
Hereditary Genius
became dreaded throughout the Mediterranean. Aet. 37, he obtained
great renown from his share in the battle of St. Vincent He was
afterwards under severe fire at Cadiz, also at Teneriffe where he lost
an arm by a cannon-shot. He then received a pension of £1, 000 a
year. The memorial which he was required to present on this
occasion, stated that he had been in action one hundred and twenty
times, and speaks of other severe wounds besides the loss of his arm
and eye. Aet. 40, he gained the victory of the Nile, where the contest
was most bloody. He thereupon was created Baron Nelson with a
pension of £3, 000 a year, and received the thanks of Parliament; he
was also made Duke of Bronte by the King of Naples/and he
became idolized in England. Aet. 43, he was engaged in the severe
battle of Copenhagen, and aet. 47 was shot at Trafalgar. Thus his
active career extended through twelve years, during the earlier part
of which he was much more frequently under fire than afterwards.
Had he only lived through two-thirds, or even three-fourths, of his
battles, he could not have commanded at the Nile, Copenhagen, or
Trafalgar. His reputation under those circumstances would have been
limited to that of a dashing captain or a young and promising admiral
Wellington was a small man; if he had been shot in the Peninsula, his
reputation, though it would have undoubtedly been very great, would
have lost the lustre of Waterloo. In short, to have survived is an
essential condition to becoming a famed commander; yet persons
equally endowed with military gifts—such as the requisite form of
high intellectual and moral ability and of constitutional vigour—are by
no means equally qualified to escape shot free. The enemy's bullets
are least dangerous to the smallest men, and therefore small men are
more likely to achieve high fame as commanders than their equally
gifted contemporaries whose physical frames are larger.
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