On that account BOLDNESS BECOMES OF RARER OCCURRENCE THE HIGHER WE ASCEND THE SCALE OF RANK, for whether the discernment and the understanding do or do not increase with these ranks still the Commanders, in their several stations as they rise, are pressed upon more and more severely by objective things, by relations and claims from without, so that they become the more perplexed the lower the degree of their individual intelligence.

This so far as regards War is the chief foundation of the truth of the French proverb:-- "Tel brille au second qui s' e'clipse an premier." Almost all the Generals who are represented in history as merely having attained to mediocrity, and as wanting in decision when in supreme command, are men celebrated in their antecedent career for their boldness and decision.( *) (*) Beaulieu, Benedek, Bazaine, Buller, Melas, Mack.

&c.

&c.
In those motives to bold action which arise from the pressure of necessity we must make a distinction.

Necessity has its degrees of intensity.