288 M. Arago's Blographicgl Memoir of Jameo Watt. 



that I shall ever agree to place all military service on the same 

 distinguished level. What Frenchman, possessed of a spark 

 of feeling, even of the times of Louis XIV., would w^illingly 

 have sought an example of courage, either in the cruel scenes of 

 the Dragonnades, or in the flaming whirlwind which consumed 

 the towns and villages, and rich domains of the Palatinate ? 

 Not long since, after a thousand prodigies of patience, ability, 

 and bravery, o\xs valiant soldiers forced Saragossa, already 

 more than half in ruins, and reached the portals of a church, 

 where a priest was heard to exclaim, in the ears of the devoted 

 crowds, these sublime words : — " Spaniards ! here I celebrate 

 your obsequies !" I do not know but that, at this moment, 

 the true friends of our national glory, balancing the several 

 merits of the conqueror and the conquered, would gladly have 

 seen them exchange places ? 



Let morality, if you choose, be put entirely out of the ques- 

 tion. Bring to the bar of conscientious criticism the personal 

 claims of certain gainers of battles, and believe that, after 

 having assigned a just share to accident (an ally this of which 

 little is said, because it is dumb), there will be but few heroes 

 who will appear worthy of this high-sounding name. 



Were it at all necessary, I should not decUne entering into 

 an examination of details, few as have been the opportunities 

 which my purely academical occupations have supplied for col- 

 lecting accurate documents on the point. I might, for ex- 

 ample, cite from our own annals a modern battle, — a battle 

 gained too, the official accounts of which described all as foreseen 

 and anticipated, planned after reflection, and executed v(dth 

 consummate ability, but which, in truth, was gained by the 

 spontaneous movements of the soldiery, without orders from 

 the general, upon whom the honours were heaped, and who 

 neither gained the day, nor knew how it was won. 



That I may escape the common reproach of incompetency, 

 I shall summon to my help, in support of the philosophical 

 thesis I maintain, no others than warriors themselves. We 

 shall then see, how much they valued intellectual labours, and 

 how enthusiastically they appreciated them ; and we shall 

 find, that in their real opinions, works of genius never occu- 

 pied the second rank. Confined within narrow limits, I shall 



