12 THE CHANGES NEEDED 



relations between man and man. The defence 

 of a country does not depend merely on the 

 physique of its inhabitants, not even on their 

 skill in the use of arms, taken by itself. It 

 depends also on the spirit that urges them for- 

 ward, and on the way in which they have been 

 trained to act together ; on their patriotism and 

 their discipline. When men are thus trained 

 together on a thoroughly sound system, avowedly 

 for the defence of their country, patriotism is 

 one of the keynotes of that training, and dis- 

 cipline is the other. 



Discipline is a very different thing from simple 

 obedience ; if it were otherwise there need be 

 no such word as discipline. But indeed this 

 very word, discipline, implies that it includes 

 something, even a great deal, that is to be 

 learned. He who is learning discipline is a 

 disciple ; and it is the great feature of true 

 discipline, when it has been thoroughly learned, 

 that no man in the squad, or the company, or 

 the battalion, acts as though he were the only 

 one man. Each unit goes forward in relation 

 to other units. A thoroughly disciplined soldier, 

 working with disciplined soldiers, relies abso- 

 lutely on the courage, the knowledge, the inten- 

 tions of the men on his right and left : he has 

 come to rely on these as if by instinct, and 

 he similarly relies on the man in front, his 

 leader, and on the men behind him, his supports. 



It cannot but be that well-disciplined men, 

 highly patriotic men, must, in their subsequent 

 industrial life, be worth far more to a nation 



