The Life of Admiral Lord Anson the Father of the British Navy 1697 1762

chievement, his voyage round the world, which now reads as an almost impossible romance, he learned that indomitable supremacy over all obstacles, that thoroughness of preparation which he so carefully exercised when he went to the Admiralty, and by which all the great actions of his time were rendered possible and like all great men of action, he never talked about what he had done. To set forth the annals of the time in which the hero has existed, and to note his contact with them, is only a part of his life-the life of the man is more than his public career. It is made up of a thousand touches, multitude of lights and shades, most of which are invisible behind his official conduct. We want to know how he talked, what he thought, what was his standpoint as regards the great issues of life, what he read in his hours of ease. Anson was before all things a sailor, a man of resource, a strict disciplinarian, but at the same time a reasonable man, who knew when to throw red tape to the winds.