Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/202

 172 TKANiSACTlONS CHAP, friendship, it was still so constructed as to be fit _ • for the ear of all the world ; and whether he spoke or whether he wrote — wliether he used the French tongue or his own clear, graceful English — it seemed that there had come from him the very words which were the best and no more. It was so natural to him to be prudent in speech, that he avoided dangerous utterance without seeming cautious or reserved. He had the subtle power to draw men along with him. To say that he was persuasive might mean that he could adduce reasons which tended to bring men to his views. His was a power of another sort, for without pressure of argument, his mind by its mere impact broke down resist- ance for the moment; and although the easy graciousness of his manner quickly set people free from all awkward constraint, it did not so liberate men's minds that, whilst they were still in his presence, they at all liked the duty of try- ing to uphold their own opinions against him. This dominion, however, was in a great degree dependent upon his actual personal presence ; for, with all the power and grace of his pen, he could not, at a distance, work effects proportioned to those which he wrought when he dealt with men face to face. It is plain that, in one respect, his empire over those who were in his presence was of a kind likely to become dangerous to him in the com- mand of an army, because it prevented men from differing from him, and even made them shrink