And her triumphs,
proceeding out of failures, have not been won over common men or in
ordinary contests. She has rarely had to deal with mean antagonists, and
her singular victories have been enhanced in value by the high grade of
her enemies. Francis I., Sultan Solyman, Gustavus Adolphus, Wallenstein,
Richelieu, Louis XIV., Napoleon I., and Kossuth are conspicuous in the
list of her enemies. They were all great men,--deriving greatness some
of them from their intellectual powers, others from their positions as
sovereigns, and yet others from both their positions and their powers of
mind. Yet she got the better of them all,[31] and some of them fell
miserably because of her enmity to them,--as Wallenstein and Napoleon.
Frederick the Great was in some sense an exception, as he accomplished
most of his purposes at her expense; and yet it cannot with propriety be
said that he conquered her, or that, at the utmost, he was ever more
than the equal of Maria Theresa or Joseph II., with all his undoubted
intellectual superiority. When we compare the Austria of 1813 with the
Austria of 1809, and see how wonderfully fortune had worked in her favor
under circumstances far from promising anything for her benefit, we are
not surprised that Austrians should still be full of confidence, or that
a few other men should share what seems to be in them a well-founded
hope.
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