, Education of the Soldier. 259 



tins that he has advanced to a certain form of this educational 

 institution. 



To foreigners it seems extremely hard that young men have 

 to interrupt their career for such a long time to play at soldiers. 

 National economists are indignant that so many hands are 

 taken away from industry or agriculture, calculating to the 

 penny what damage is done by it to the country. Though 

 these calculations may be very correct, these adversaries to tne 

 Prussian military system forget that this loss is more than suffi- 

 ciently compensated for by the improvement of these hands ; 

 for the agriculturist and tradesman will be sent back to his 

 home endowed with qualities which enable him to follow his 

 occupation with far greater success than before. He does not 

 learn only how to handle his gun and to practise the goose- 

 step ; he has to undergo a course of education which makes 

 him in every respect a better man. Care is not only taken to 

 improve and complete what he has learnt in his rural school, 

 his bodily development is likewise considered. Besides this, 

 and that is highly important, he becomes used to order and 

 cleanliness, and by intercourse with his comrades his views are 

 enlarged and his whole tenor of life improved. 



His comrades are not, as was in olden times the case, the 

 scum of the nation, for at his elbow stand in rank and file the 

 young men of the best families of the country ; and even if one 

 should bring with him low habits and propensities, the example 

 and influence of this class of comrades, which is rather prevail- 

 ing in number in consequence of the attention paid to national 

 education, would serve as a check and improve his morals. 



After having served his time with his regiment a young man 

 will, in most cases, return much altered and improved, and as 

 his connection with the army is not ended yet with his term of 

 actual service, this salutary influence will always be refreshed 

 by his annual return for a few weeks to some military body. 

 Up to a certain age this connection with the army is continued ; 

 he belongs to the Landwehr, and in case of war he has to join 

 his regiment at the shortest notice. The last war has shown 

 what this Landwehr really is, and gloriously proved in every 

 respect the excellence of the Prussian military system. Hard 

 as it seemed to foreigners that married men had to leave their 

 families and avocations to fight the French, ' because their 

 king was slighted by the minister of Napoleon HI.,' they had 



