It was in part the effect of discipline; yet he seems by nature to have possessed this power in a degree which has been denied to other men." [15*5] The Duke of Wellington's natural temper, like that of Napoleon, was irritable in the extreme; and it was only by watchful self-control that he was enabled to restrain it.

He studied calmness and coolness in the midst of danger, like any Indian chief.

At Waterloo, and elsewhere, he gave his orders in the most critical moments, without the slightest excitement, and in a tone of voice almost more than usually subdued.

[156] Wordsworth the poet was, in his childhood, "of a stiff, moody, and violent temper," and "perverse and obstinate in defying chastisement." When experience of life had disciplined his temper, he learnt to exercise greater self-control; but, at the same time, the qualities which distinguished him as a child were afterwards useful in enabling him to defy the criticism of his enemies.

Nothing was more marked than Wordsworth's self-respect and self-determination, as well as his self-consciousness of power, at all periods of his history.
Henry Martyn, the missionary, was another instance of a man in whom strength of temper was only so much pent-up, unripe energy.