But, while admitting that the personality and the fortune of Napoleon were both alike surprising, Mr. Seeley contends that it is only the accidental combination of both which has impressed and captivated the imagination of mankind; and he believes that the separation of these factors by a calm exercise of the judgment will greatly simplify the problem and reduce the marvel of the great soldier's achievements. There will, of course, be some divergence of opinion as to this, but it seems to us that, on the whole, it is a judgment which subsequent historians will be likely to accept without serious modifications. It can hardly be called an absolutely impartial judgment. At no more than a distance of seventy years from Waterloo, that was not in the nature of things possible, if indeed it will ever be. The historian that would tell the story of the French Revolution, and estimate the character and result of Napoleon's military and political action, without bias or betrayal of personal sympathy or antipathy, would be a most extraordinary person; he could not be an Englishman; he could not be a Frenchman; he could not be a German; he could scarcely be an American, for obvious reasons. Bearing this in mind we cannot but think that Mr. Seeley has achieved considerable success in the difficult task he has undertaken in the later and more valuable portion of his book. Fully admitting, as he does, Napoleon's extraordinary military talents, his astonishing versatility and fruitfulness of resource, the promptitude, rapidity, and unerring precision of his movements, Mr. Seeley maintains that what is really marvellous is the remarkable combination of favorable circumstances which at the outset furnished his field, and the equally remarkable flow of good fortune which made him so successful in it. Commenting on the brilliant victory of Marengo, which the professor designates "his crowning victory," he says, "Genius is prodigally displayed, and yet an immense margin is left for fortune." He points out Napoleon's superstitious belief in his own unfailing good luck, and shows how, by expecting results entirely unwarranted by the probabilities, as at Leipsic, for instance, his strange hallucination finally proved ruinous to himself and to France. * * * * *