Page:History of the French in India.djvu/317

 HIS INBORN GENIUS. 293 pallf. What he saw there was not encouraging. The chap. men were dispirited, and had lost all confidence in their. leader. The French were superior in numbers, and 1751. seemed to be pushing their attack with resolution. The surrender of the last stronghold of Muhammad Ali appeared to him, therefore, to be inevitable, unless it were possible to infuse a sort of revolutionary energy into the counsels of the English. To attempt this at Trichinapalli would be, he knew, useless. The fate of the English must depend upon the action taken at the Presidency. To influence this action he left therefore Trichinapalli, and returned to Fort St. David. The plan which Clive had revolved in his own mind as the plan absolutely necessary for the safety of his countrymen, was due doubtless rather to his inborn genius than to extensive reading or study. It was nevertheless the plan which the greatest military leaders have loved to pursue, — a plan which, adopted by a man possessing daring and prudence, must always be suc- cessful, except when opposed by immensely superior numbers, or by genius of a still higher order. There is this, too, with respect to such a plan ; no one but a great captain ever has tried it, ever could try it. It is too much for the spirit, for the capacity, for the nerve of an inferior man. To him it seems too bold, too venturesome, too hazardous. It leaves too much at stake. And this, — though the plan is as safe as it is bold, — is safe because it is bold. We allude to the plan of carrying the war into an enemy's country. The inferior general who hesitates to do this, though he sees that if it could be done it would save him and rain his enemy, does not calculate on the inevitable effect which such a movement must produce on the " morale " of the force opposed to him, especially when that force constitutes the principal, perhaps the entire,