THE STUDY 01 MILITARY HISTORY. 
403 
demonstration of the truth that genius consists in taking infinite pains 
and neglecting or despising nothing that may aid you on your way. 
As regards reading, all the greatest soldiers have indeed set us an 
example which we would do well to follow. 
Napoleon has recorded his admiration for Turenne, and has stated 
that that great leader had made himself what he was by a laborious 
study of the art of war. 
Wellington told General Shaw Kennedy that he had made it a rule 
to devote some hours every day to study ; and Moltke has admitted 
how much he was indebted to the Great Frederick. 
I will not weary you by quoting further evidence in support of my 
contention that soldiers should study their profession as carefully 
as other men of business do theirs. I believe most people really 
think so now-a-days, and that the old, what I may call, Philistine views 
are dying out. 
But there are different ways of studying, and time may not be as 
profitably spent as possible even in a library. 
We have of late been flooded with memoirs and reminiscences of 
celebrated warriors, and the demand for these books argues for their 
popularity. Every now and again in them we come across facts which 
are undoubtedly of great service to us towards a study of our profes¬ 
sion, small details which perhaps help to fill up the evidence necessary 
to elucidate some disputed point in a great controversy, or corroborate 
what we may have had reason to suspect already. 
But there is a good deal often of the tittle-tattle of history in them 
too, and they are occasionally rather more amusing than valuable. There 
is likewise a danger in pushing research in the direction of what I may 
call antiquarian interest too far. The details of pay or interior 
economy, or of the pattern and variation of uniform and equipment some¬ 
times occupy too large a space in the minds of readers. 
Just as Napoleon tells us how the King of Prussia and Emperor of 
Russia, when in conversation with him, argued about the number of 
buttons a dragoon should have on his jacket, and clearly thought it an 
astonishing carelessness in him that he did not seem to care to take part 
in the discussion. 
I have known men bestow infinite pains and much time and 
labour in an endeavour to decide whether there was one gun more or 
less in a battery on some particular spot, or as to the precise formation 
of a body of troops. I know that I have met officers crammed to the 
brim with the names of the commanders of the various units of a cam¬ 
paign/the exact pattern of the guns and of the rifles, and perhaps so 
absorbed in their study that they disregarded the real causes that 
contributed to failure or success. 
I do not say that such close analysis is not often valuable; I think 
patient delving amongst old records occasionally produces very valuable 
results, but such labour should be undertaken with some practical ob¬ 
ject in view and while not necessary for all, is not even desirable for 
young men except as a pastime or amusement. What we should rather 
desire is that men should read and continually apply their reading to the 
