In each of the human machines he builds and manipulates, he perceives
right away all the parts, each in its proper place and function, the
motors, the transmissions, the wheels, the composite action, the speed
which ensues, the final result, the complete effect, the net product.
Never is he content with a superficial and summary inspection; he
penetrates into obscure corners and to the lowest depths "through the
technical precision of his questions," with the lucidity of a
specialist, and in this way, borrowing an expression from the
philosophers, with him the concept should be adequate to its
purpose.[56]

Hence his eagerness for details, for these form the body and substance
of the concept; the hand that has not grasped these, or lets them go,
retains only the shell, an envelope. With respect to these his
curiosity is "insatiable."[57] In each ministerial department he knows
more than the ministers, and in each bureau he knows as much as the
clerks. "On his table[58] lie reports of the positions of his forces
on land and on water. He has furnished the plans of these, and fresh
ones are issued every month"; such is the daily reading he likes best.

"I have my reports on positions always at hand; my memory for an
Alexandrine is not good, but I never forget a syllable of my reports
on positions. I shall find them in my room this evening, and I shall
not go to bed until I have read them."

He always knows "his position" on land and at sea better than is known
in the War and Navy departments; better even than his staff-officers
the number, size, and qualities of his ships in or out of port, the
present and future state of vessels under construction, the