Let it not be imagined that the great souls who have made history
by their heroic action and their momentous decisions in moments of
critical exigency were unprepared, or that they played their grand
parts at random. The hour of destiny comes, and the man comes with it,
but he has always been in training for it. He has had his forty days in
the wilderness.
On the ridge of Leuthen, far up above the plain, Frederick the
Great through his glass watched the gathering of the enemy’s
hosts in overwhelming numbers. He only gazed on the terrible
spectacle five minutes, and then he had thought out the
magnificent combinations which arranged his plan of battle. Ruin
fell on the foe and a new era in history was inaugurated; but
this was only because Frederick had trained himself for years
for the crisis.
(623)