“These remarks are neither made nor offered as applying exclusively to the science of war.  They apply to all other sciences; but in these, errors are comparatively harmless.  A naturalist may amuse himself and the public with false and fanciful theories of the earth; and a metaphysician may reason very badly on the relations and forms of matter and spirit, without any ill effect but to make themselves ridiculous.  Their blunders but make us merry; they neither pick pockets, nor break legs, nor destroy lives; while those of a general bring after them evils the most compounded and mischievous,—­the slaughter of an army—­the devastation of a state—­the ruin of an empire!”

“In proportion as ignorance may be calamitous, the reasons for acquiring instruction are multiplied and strengthened.  Are you an honest man?  You will spare neither labor nor sacrifice to gain a competent knowledge of your duty.  Are you a man of honor?  You will be careful to avoid self-reproach.  Does your bosom glow with the holy fervor of patriotism?  You will so accomplish yourself as to avoid bringing down upon your country either insult or injury.”

“Nor are the more selfish impulses without a similar tendency.  Has hunger made you a soldier?  Will you not take care of your bread!  Is vanity your principle of action?  Will you not guard those mighty blessings, your epaulets and feathers!  Are you impelled by a love of glory or a love of power?  And can you forget that these coy mistresses are only to be won by intelligence and good conduct?”

“But the means of instruction, say you, where are they to be found?  Our standing army is but a bad and ill-organized militia, and our militia not better than a mob.  Nor have the defects in these been supplied by Lycees, Prytanees, and Polytechnic schools.  The morbid patriotism of some, and the false economy of others, have nearly obliterated every thing like military knowledge among us.”

“This, reader, is but one motive the more for reinstating it.  Thanks to the noble art of printing! you still have books which, if studied, will teach the art of war.”

“Books!  And what are they but the dreams of pedants?  They may make a Mack, but have they ever made a Xenophon, a Caesar, a Saxe, a Frederick, or a Bonaparte?  Who would not laugh to hear the cobbler of Athens lecturing Hannibal on the art of war?”

“True; but as you are not Hannibal, listen to the cobbler.  Xenophon, Caesar, Saxe, Frederick, and Napoleon, have all thought well of books, and have even composed them.  Nor is this extraordinary, since they are but the depositories of maxims which genius has suggested, and experience confirmed; since they both enlighten and shorten the road of the traveller, and render the labor and genius of past ages tributary to our own. These teach most emphatically, that the secret of successful war is not to be found