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GREAT MEN'S BODIES
Both were strategists of the very first order; both conducted strategy on the same principles; but Napoleon was perhaps the more dazzling strategist of the two; if not as safe, or even as profound as Hannibal. Both were masters of tactics in the highest sense; but Hannibal was the better tactician; we can scarcely detect a fault in his battles. This certainly cannot be said of Napoleon, often too sanguine, and too impetuous on the field. Both had firmness of character, and great strength of purpose; but here Hannibal is perhaps superior; no achievements of Napoleon give proof of the tenacity of Hannibal in his lair in Bithynia, where he defied the overwhelming forces of Rome. Hannibal, taken altogether, produced greater results, considering how inadequate his resources were. Napoleon's ambition and lust of conquest made him the destroyer of the edifice of power he had built up. As political figures, the two men are not to be compared. Hannibal was trained to statesmanship from earliest youth; and exhibited the best gifts of a statesman; Napoleon was a son of the French Revolution; and though mighty as a ruler and in the art of government, and potent as his influence for good was, in some respects, he was too extravagant and impulsive to be a perfect statesman. Napoleon's nature too had many defects and flaws. We know much less about that of Hannibal; but, as far as we can judge, he was almost free from selfishness, ostentation, and even ambition. For the rest, Napoleon may fill as large a place in history; yet Hannibal was perhaps the greater man. But it has been truly said, that master-spirits, like them, can be weighed only in the balance of God."
And he knew how to care for his body; and he had a noble one, a potent factor in winning all his victories. Gilman's Hannibal, p. 181, says: "The very model of a soldier; he was bold, but never rash; cool in the presence of danger, and infinitely fertile of resource." But to fatigue he seemed insensible. He could bear heat and cold equally well. Of food and drink he cared only to take so much as satisfied the needs of nature. To sleep he gave such time as business spared him; and he could take it anywhere and anyhow. Many a time he
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