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SYNOPTICAL CHARTS. 
taneously in other theatres of the war. What a valuable adjunct to 
Napier for instance, would be a chart of the Peninsular War worked 
out on these lines! The war of 1870-71 would also, I should think, 
lend itself to similar treatment with good effect. 
The Synoptical Chart Company publish note-books specially 
designed for recording information intended for embodiment in a 
chart, so that every facility is afforded to anyone who should feel 
moved to take up the subject of chart-making. 
The time is, I would venture to predict, not so very far distant, when 
a military student would as soon think of studying a campaign without 
a synoptical chart, as without a map of the country.* 
SIX CENTURIES OF ATTACK AND DEFENCE.t 
The chart entitled “ Six centuries of attack and defence,” (Fig. 3) 
was got out primarily for the use of cadets and is intended to elucidate 
the chapters on historical fortification in the text-book used at the 
Royal Military Academy. It may, however, I think be found to be 
of use to officers generally as an index of facts in the history of warfare. 
At the close of the first book of the Dunciad, Pope describes the 
Goddess of Dulness in the act of initiating the hero of the poem into 
her mysteries. How to attain to literary success without trouble and 
without genius is the burden of her discourse. 
Amongst other glowing promises she describes 
“ How index-learning turns no student pale, 
Yet holds the eel of science by the tail.” 
I am not prepared to vouch for the accuracy of the first part of her 
statement, but in the latter part there is, I think, a good deal of truth. 
Such monuments of '‘index-learning” as “ Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary,” 
the “ Encyclopaedia Britannica ” and the “ Dictionary of National 
Biography ” are sufficient evidence that since Pope’s time the value of 
“ index-learning ” has obtained more and more recognition. 
The eel of science once grasped by the tail by means of an alpha¬ 
betical index, is not likely to make good his escape from any future 
generation of men. The accompanying chart forms in a small way an 
index of the main facts in the history of the art of war during the last 
six centuries. 
Although not alphabetical, the facts are easily referred to owing to 
the small number of headings; so that I think it is fair to entitle it 
an index. 
It has besides, this advantage over a printed index that the facts 
are represented graphically as well as given in words. The chart may 
be described shortly as an attempt to present at one view, and as far 
as possible graphically, the gradual progress of the art of war since 
the invention of gun-powder. 
On each side of the chart is a vertical time-scale, which reads up¬ 
wards from the middle of the thirteenth century. The vertical time- 
scale is cut by horizontal lines, spaced at equal distances representing 
twenty years. 
* The Times is at the present moment bringing out a synoptical chart of the military operations 
in Natal. 
t We are indebted to the R.E. Institute for placing at our disposal the block which enabled us 
to re-produce this chart in the form of the attached supplement.—Secretary R.A.I. 
