THE FIRST GREAT SOLDIER-AUTHOR?

1491 B. C.

This was the bravest warrior
That ever buckled sword;

This the most gifted poet

That ever breathed a word;
And never earth's philosopher
Traced with his golden pen
On the deathless page
Truths half so sage

As he wrote down for men!

-The Burial of Moses,

by Mrs. Alexander.

THE HAPPY WARRIOR

Who is the happy warrior? Who is he
That every man in arms should wish to be?
It is the generous spirit, who, when brought
Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought
Upon the plan that pleased his boyish thought;
Whose high endeavors are an inward light

That makes the path before him always bright:
Who, with a natural instinct to discern

What knowledge can perform, is diligent to learn;
Abides by this resolve, and stops not there,
But makes his moral being his prime care;
Who, doomed to go in company with Pain
And Fear and Bloodshed, miserable train!
Turns his necessity to glorious gain:

'Tis he whose law is reason; who depends Upon that law as on the best of friends;

Who comprehends his trust, and to the same
Keeps faithful with a singleness of aim -

'Tis, finally, the man, who, lifted high, Or left, unthought-of, in obscurity,

Finds comfort in himself and in his cause,
And, while the mortal mist is gathering, draws
His breath in confidence of Heaven's applause.
This is the happy warrior; this is he

That every man in arms should wish to be.

-William Wordsworth, 1806–7.

STUDY III

SHAKESPEARE'S SWORD AND MUSKET

A STUDY OF THE MILITARY ELEMENT IN THE

MAN AND HIS DREAMS

A PRELIMINARY word in regard to SoldierAuthors.

A life-long soldiership must be fatal to authorship; brief one may transform the sword into a pen. With pardonable exaggeration the sweet Scottish songstress1 sings of the great Hebrew, who more than three thousand years ago united in himself warrior, poet, statesman, theologian, historian, lawgiver, and prophet.

With a passionate loyalty which impelled him at the outset of his career to strike down an Egyptian smiting an Israelite; with a chivalrous reverence for womanhood that made him, though a stranger, champion of the wronged daughters of the priest of Midian; yet with a modest selfdepreciation or disinterestedness that has rendered his name for all subsequent ages a synonym for meekness; perhaps the leading impression gained from a study of his character and deeds is a sense of energy. This, as always with soldiers and with almost every man of genius, must have been, at least in part, physical; and accordingly we are told that at the age of one hundred and twenty his

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eye was not dim nor his natural force abated." In whatever direction he acted a fiery vigor blazes forth, just as truly as in the earliest and grandest of martial hymns, "The Song of Moses," when the hundreds of thousands of Israel had passed through the sea and the pursuing hosts were drowned —

"I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: The horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.

With the blast of thy nostrils the waters were gathered together,

The floods stood upright as a heap,

The depths were congealed in the heart of the sea.
The enemy said,

I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil;
My lust shall be satisfied upon them;

I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them! -
Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them;

They sank as lead in the mighty waters!

Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like unto thee, glorious in holiness,
Fearful in praises, doing wonders? "2

Such men are necessarily few: human nature is rarely great enough to combine intensest thought with stoutest action. The strong man is usually strong in but one direction. If, like the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, the head be of gold, and the breast silver, and the thighs brass, and the legs iron, the feet will be partly at least of clay. There is a law of compensation here, some defect offsetting every excellence.3