George Washington: Citizen-Soldier (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 273 In the section on the transference, Jung carries his argument further by insisting that "the unrelated human being lacks wholeness, for he can achieve wholeness only through the soul, and the soul cannot exist without its other side, which is always found in a 'You'." Jung concludes that "The soul is therefore the essence of relationship," and, thus, "The living mystery of life is always hidden between Two. . . ." Jung's work is a circle—he is not a scientist whose study led him to religion but rather, as this collection demonstrates, he was a profoundly intelligent and sensitive human whose religious sense led him to science which, finally, returned him to the ground of the sacred. The strength of this biography is that it makes this clear. Jaffê's collection is not so much a biography of the life of a man as it is a biography of the life of the spirit, which would no doubt please Jung, who saw himself, above all, as a "lover of the soul." He said at different times in his letters that "Life, so-called, is a short episode between two great mysteries, which are yet one," and that "[his] raison d'être consists in coming to terms with that indefinable Being we call 'God'." He knew, too, of course, that "the history of the spirit is not preserved in learned volumes." Thus, this biography, like any other, does not finally stand alone. It does, however, serve well both as an introduction for the uninitiated and as an appreciation for the adept. The collection is a tribute to the spirit of a man whose genius is not fully understood and whose contributions to scientific as well as to humanistic thought will not be fully assessed for some time to come. Aniela Jaffé's narrative commentary should not be faulted for its lack of critical perspective, for it never pretends to be anything but an admiring tribute. In the spirit of Éranos, there is a respectful expression of what can be expressed but, more important, there is a healthy reverence for the inexpressible; there is, finally, a trust in the image to evoke what words cannot ever hope to say. Steven S. Curry University of Hawaii Charles Cecil Wall, George Washington: Citizen-Soldier. Charlottesville : University Press of Virginia, 1980. 217 pp. $12.50. Unquestionably, George Washington ranks as the preeminent military leader of the American Revolution. One biographer has gone so far as to dub Washington "the indispensable man." As a military commander, his mere presence held the motley forces of the Continental army to- 274 biography Vol. 5, No. 3 gether; his own determination and endurance, above all other factors, kept the faltering struggle for independence alive in its darkest hours. While Washington evinced marked talents for military command both on and off the battlefield, he did not consider himself a soldier at heart. He sought adventure as a young man, but bowed to duty and personal honor in later years. He never failed to recognize himself as a citizen called to soldier by a struggling young nation in its hour of need. Charles Cecil Wall, in his recent biography of Washington, seeks to emphasize this aspect of the General's career. While this "citizensoldier " consciousness has not gone unnoticed before, most historians and biographers have concentrated on the military side of Washington 's life. Wall asks us to direct our attention, at least in part, toward a part of the General's life that played a major, though less-publicized, role in his years as commander. Wall paints a portrait of a man who, though duty bound to remain in voluntary exile from his beloved home, Mount Vernon, never lost touch with the domestic scenes of his life. He reveals "a general who in the midst of his military preoccupations finds welcome diversion in writing detailed directions for the planting of groves and shrubberies about his distant dwelling on the bank of the Potomac or the drawing of plans for a new Mount Vernon stable" (pp. xii-xiii). Wall's focus, of course, is on the Revolutionary years, but he carefully recreates the man from his earliest days through his...