text:  Thus of what efficacy were the constancy of Pitt the foresight of Burke the arm of Nelson the wisdom of Wellington the genius of Wellesley in bringing to maturity the British empire and spreading the Anglo-Saxon race in pursuance of its appointed mission over half the globe! What marvellous effect had the heroism and skill of Robert Bruce upon the subsequent history of Scotland and through it on the fortunes of the British race! Thus biography or the deeds or thoughts of illustrious men still forms a most important and certainly the most interesting part even of general history; and the perfection of that noble art consists not in the exclusive delineation of individual achievement or the concentration of attention on general causes but in the union of the two in due proportions as they really exist in nature and determine by their combined operation the direction of human affairs