Retrofpeét of French Literature.—Mifcellaneous. 
%5 coriftitute a General, and that an 
ignorance of principle is attended 
With but little difadvantage. . 
“* War (he fays,) may indeed bea 
bib for the ignorant, but it isa 
icience for men of ability; and a {cience 
cannot be acquired but by the ftudy of 
rules and the combinations of genius, 
The Greeks and Romans were fully 
confcious of thistruth, and according- 
ly eftablifhed public {chools for facili- 
tating the acquifition of this fpecies of 
knowledge ; but, with an exception. to 
thefe, the other nations of antiquity, 
aéting without any certain principles, 
placed their entire reliancein the num- 
ber of men they were able to lead into 
the field. : 
“© The fcience of war, therefore, was 
only reduced into a theory by the Ro- 
mans and Greeks, and they have left us 
many Treatifes on. this fubjeét, The 
phalanx and the legion were adopted in 
conformity to geometrical calculations ; 
and if we meet with examples of Gene- 
rals who, like Xenophon, Epaminon- 
das, and Alexander, obtained great 
viétories in their youth, the reafon is 
that the theory with them preceded the - 
practice.” 
The Count dela Rocheaymonthen te- 
plies to the arguménts of thofe who 
might object to the neceffity of acquir- 
ing the theory of the art, by holding up 
the unexampied fucceffés of the French 
armies, and afferting that the victories 
of Pichegru overthe Prince de Co- 
bourg, the able mancéuvres of Deffaix, 
the repeated paflage of the Rhine by 
General Moreau, and the memorable 
defence of Maffena in Switzerland and 
Italy, could not have been entirely the 
refult of preparatory ftudies. To this 
he replies, “* That thefe commanders, 
although chiefly felected from protef- 
fions foreign to the military art, were 
provided with, and direéted by, an ex- 
traordinary portion of genius, the de- 
finition of which can alone refolve this 
military problem.” 
After having demonftrated the abfo- 
lute néceffity of previous ftudy in. or- 
der to attain a competent Knowledge of 
the rules of war, the Count proceeds to 
examine if as much has been done for 
this as for other f{ciences during the. 
prefent époch; and he concludcs his 
inquiry by afferting, that, although 
there be a great number ef writings on 
the art, yet its true elements are no 
whére tu be found. oe 
** The Works of Marfhaide Puifee 
Montutx Mag, No, 119, 
651 , 
gur (fays he). is become, in a great, 
meafure, ufelefs by achange of the evo- 
lutions and the augmentation of the ar- 
tillery. Fouquieres abandons himfelf 
too much to routine; the Marquis de 
Santa-Crux has added toomany ufelefs 
things to his Colleétion; and Guibert 
has delivered himfelf entirely over to 
the {pirit of fyftem. 
‘© Befides this, a collection of books 
relative to his art. is too expenfive for 
the purfe of a fimple officer; and it is 
one of the improvements aimed at in 
this work, to prefent an introduétion to 
military fcience, from its firft princi- 
ples to its laft refults, under a form the. 
jeaft voluminous and expenfive.””, —_.. 
Captain La Rocheaymon begins with 
an alphabetical notice of the principal 
publications on the art of war in all its 
branches. The introduction com- 
mences with a differtation on geogra- 
ply, *¢ which, for a military man, does 
not confift in acquiring the names of’ 
empires, rivers, and ftreams, but in ob- 
taining exact information in refpeé to 
the nature of the government, the na- 
tional genius, the manners, the popu- 
lation, the genius, the agriculture, and 
the commerce, both external and in- 
ternal, of any nation: for a commander 
ought to appreciate the refources 
which a country, either attacked or de- 
fended by him, may draw from its 
numbers, the produce of its foil, its - 
induftry, and its refources. All thefe 
various objects areto beregarded asthe 
policy of war, and are manifettly effen- 
tial to the attainment of aperfect know- 
ledge of it.” — | 
It geography; then, be highly fer 
viceable for the political and military 
determination of a plan of war, topo- 
graphy. or local knowledge, is here 
maintained to be abjolutely oeceflary 
as a bafis to the projects of operation. 
He gives an inftance of the advantage 
of this latter branca of the icience, by 
the application of his primciple to an, 
ana.ytical defcription of the frontiers of } 
France, which we lament chat we have . 
not reom to tranflate for this work. 
From this differtation on topography 
the Count de la Rocheaymon proceeds 
to confider the theory of execution, and 
that portion of the'icience which con- 
‘filts in the knowledge of the ground.— 
According to him, Fabius was the firft 
among the ancients who took advan- 
tage of the nature of the country, fo as . 
to oppofe the efforts of Hannibal with 
fuceeds ; - confequance of this he 
4 avoided 
