The universal blunder of mankind arises from an hallucination that all minds are created equal; and that by mere book-learning, i.e., simply by memorizing what somebody says are facts it is possible for any man to attain to superior and even to superlative ability.
Such profoundly, but utterly mis-educated people, not unnaturally may inquire, by what right speaks the eminent warrior previously quoted. These properly may be informed in the words of Frederic the Great:
“The Count de Saxe is the hero of the bravest action ever done by man.” viz.,
A great battle was raging.
Within a magnificent Pavilion in the centre of the French camp, the King, the nobility and the high Ecclesiastics of the realm were grouped about a plain iron cot.
Prone upon this cot, wasted by disease, lay the Count de Saxe, in that stupor which often precedes and usually presages dissolution.
The last rites of the Church had been administered, and the assemblage in silence and apprehension, awaited the approach of a victorious enemy and the final gasp of a general who had never lost a battle.
The din of strife drawing nearer, penetrated the coma which enshrouded the soul of the great Field-Marshal.