The Thirty Years' War - James Aitken Wylie

een trained under him. The tactics, the power of
rapid combination of masses, the intrepidity, and
above all the lofty spirit of Gustavus, to a great
degree lived in Bernard of Saxe-Weimar, Bauer,
Torstenson, and Wrangel. It was not on the leaders
only that Gustavus had stamped his image, he had
infused his spirit into the common soldiers, and
thus all three – the Diet, the minister, and the army
– continued to pursue the career in which the late
king had started them, just as a machine, to which a
mighty impulse has been communicated, continues
to revolve after the strong hand from which the
impulse came is withdrawn.
The work which hitherto had been done by one
was now divided among many. Gustavus Adolphus
had centered in himself the office of minister, of
Diet, of diplomatist, of statesman, and of general.
The conception of his plans was his, and so too was
the execution of them. The comprehensiveness of
his mind and the versatility of his genius made
these various parts easy and natural to him, and
gave him a prodigious advantage over his
opponents, by giving a more perfect unity and a
194