i26 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



be thoroughly well trained and able to act, both by day and 

 night, in any and every sort of country; that they must be 

 thoroughly disciplined, the rank and file having perfect con- 

 fidence in their officers and in their own prowess, and the 

 officers having perfect confidence in their men, in their leaders, 

 and in themselves ; that, in addition, they must be well organised, 

 the arrangements for supplying the troops with food, ammuni- 

 tion, clothing, and everything they required, for tending sick 

 and wounded, being almost perfect. Weakness in any one of 

 these, and in numerous other items which it was impossible to 

 remember offhand, would result in a loss of efficiency. 



But the matter did not stop here. The most perfectly 

 organised, trained, and disciplined troops would probably be 

 beaten if badly led. This made him ask questions relative to 

 this leading. He was told that the principle of the thing was 

 "to concentrate superior force at the decisive point at the 

 decisive moment." He thought this sounded very pretty, and 

 he rather believed that he had heard the expression before, but 

 he was not quite certain of the exact meaning of it. After some 

 little hesitation he was told that the battle was the decisive 

 point, and that the moment at which the battle was fought was 

 the decisive moment. He pointed out, however, that there 

 were many battles in each war, and that they could not all be 

 decisive points. He was told that they were; or that, if they 

 were not, then the first battle was the decisive point ; and that, 

 if that one was not, then the next one would be; or it might be 

 that the last battle would prove to be the decisive point. He 

 said it seemed to him very difficult, and was told that it was 

 difficult ; that the average man found it sufficiently hard to say 

 which had been the decisive point in a war after it had been 

 fought, and that it was one secret of success to be able to fore- 

 cast the decisive point and another to prepare the superior force 

 in peace time; for, unless that were done, it was unlikely that 

 superior force would be available at the first battle. Then 

 followed a discussion as to the consequences of losing the first 

 battle, and the general consensus of opinion was that, in modern 

 war, it would almost certainly prove disastrous. The reason 

 seemed to be that defeat led to demoralisation. The citizen 

 found it difficult to believe that men could be downcast by a 

 single beating ; but he was assured that, judging from history, 

 it was undoubtedly the case, only, of course, the better the 



