The arrangement was so made, and the consequent meeting lasted from six to nine the next morning.  Of its general nature and results we have an authentic outline, given in later years to Nelson’s biographers by Rose, who became, and to the last remained, his warm personal friend.  The conversation ranged, apparently, over all the chief occurrences in the West Indies during the cruise of the “Boreas,” including both the naval frauds and the contraband trade.  The breadth and acuteness of Nelson’s intellect have been too much overlooked, in the admiration excited by his unusually grand moral endowments of resolution, dash, and fearlessness of responsibility.  Though scarcely what could be called an educated man, he was one of close and constant observation, thereby gaining a great deal of information; and to the use of this he brought a practical sagacity, which coped with the civil or political questions placed before it, for action, much as it did with military questions—­for, after all, good generalship, on its intellectual side, is simply the application, to the solution of a military problem, of a mind naturally gifted therefor, and stored with experience, either personal or of others.  As a strategist and tactician, Nelson made full proof of high native endowments, of wisdom garnered through fruitful study and meditation, and of clear insight into the determining conditions of the various military situations with which he had to deal.  To Mr. Rose, the young captain of barely thirty years displayed a precise knowledge of several political subjects, connected with the commerce of the country, that would not naturally come under his notice as an officer, and which therefore the mere seaman would probably not have imbibed.  Not only so, but his suggestions for dealing practically with the interests at stake were so judicious, that Rose, a valued associate of Pitt and intimately acquainted with the financial measures of that brilliant administrator, complimented him warmly upon the justice and correctness of his views, the result, as they were, of reflection based upon a mastery of the data involved.  With Nelson’s consent, he undertook to lay them before the prime minister, as the direct testimony of a singularly competent first-hand observer.

It is to be noted, however, of Nelson, that this accuracy of mental perception, this power of penetrating to the root of a matter, disregarding unessential details and fastening solely on decisive features, was largely dependent upon the necessity laid upon him for action; which is probably equivalent to saying that it was usually elicited by a sobering sense of responsibility.  In his letters and despatches may be found many wild guesses, inconsistent from week to week, colored by changing moods and humors,—­the mere passing comments of a mind off guard,—­the records of evanescent impressions as numerous, fickle, and unfounded as those of the most ordinary mortal.  It is when urgency presses and danger threatens, when