"their waters, their animals, their seasons, their climates, their "heats and cold, their inhabitants, their customs, their lan66 guage, their policy, and even their religion.

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"Is it else to be conceived, corporal (continued my "uncle Toby, rising up in his sentry-box as he began to warm " in this part of his discourse), how Marlborough could have "marched his army from the banks of the Maes to Belburg; "from Belburg to Kerpenord, (here the corporal could sit no longer); from Kerpenord, Trim, to Kalsaken; from Kal"saken to Newdorf; from Newdorf to Landenbourg; from Landenbourg to Mildenheim; from Mildenheim to Elchingen; from Elchingen to Gingen; from Gingen to Balmer"choffen; from Balmerchoffen to Skellenbourg, where he "broke in upon the enemy's works, forced his passage over "the Danube; crossed the Lech, pushed on his troops into "the heart of the empire, marching at the head of them through Friburg, Hokenwert, and Schonwell, to the plains of "Blenheim and Hochstet. Great as he was, corporal, he "could not have advanced a step, or made one single day's "march, without the aid of geography."

It would be impertinent and pedantic to attempt here to lay down a course of study, or to give a list of books necessary or useful in military academies. These are well known, and there can be no danger, that technical instruction should be omitted in the several branches of science, which it is the peculiar business of certain masters and professors to teach. In fact, there is more danger that too much should be attempted of this sort than too little; it sometimes happens, that

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the more masters try to cram into the head, the less remains there; and that in the endeavour to impress on the memory all the detail, and all the formulas of arts and sciences, the grand and simple principles are taken for granted, or never clearly understood. Officers of the army and navy, who have seen service, deplore or ridicule the useless course of theoretic preparatory education, which is sometimes given to young soldiers and sailors. A distinguished admiral in the British navy has been heard to declare, that all he had been taught of navigation before he went to sea was of no manner of use to him, but on the contrary, just so much out of his way; for that when he first went on deck, he thought he knew every thing, and it was some time before he could be convinced, that he knew nothing. In the same spirit a celebrated general replied to some one, who asked him to describe the nature of a battle,"If I cannot tell you what it is like, I am sure I can tell you "what it is not. It is not like a review."

The folly of attempting to teach naval youths practical navigation at academies, is deprecated by all who have had experience in the sea service. The practice is totally different from the theory that is taught at schools, and the knowledge even that the pupils possess on these subjects can be of no service to them when they first go to sea; there is always an interval between that and the period when they can possibly want it, which interval would be fully sufficient for the acquisition with those, who are grounded in the sciences of geometry and trigonometry. Many a little Jack and Paddy, who knew nothing even of geometry and trigonometry, and who could hardly add 4 to 4, have been known to work a day's

work, after being eighteen months at sea, as correctly as possible. This is not said to encourage preceptors in neglecting to ground their pupils well in trigonometry and geometry, but to show how the pressure of necessity forces the mind to learn, and to point out how quickly that knowledge is acquired, for which there is immediate demand and employment.

Instead of teaching navigation before it can be useful, and in circumstances where it cannot be well learned, it would be wise to teach those parts of a thorough seaman's knowledge, of which the rudiments may be effectually and permanently instilled at school. It is astonishing that people who pass their lives in a ship should often be totally ignorant of her construction, and of the most common names of her parts: yet so it is. A large bet has been offered by a seaman on this assertion, that, take any thirty officers in the navy, promiscuously, out of the 4350 of which it consists, not more than one should know the names of the parts of a vessel. Now it would not be difficult to instruct pupils in ship-building. This must be taught by actual work, not by pulling to pieces and replacing pretty painted models. Let the boys, under the superintendence of a shipwright master, frame and erect a ship of three or four yards long; let them saw their own timber, and forge their own bolts : let her be finished secundum artem, and the joyful huzzas of the little workmen would reward the successful completion of the vessel.

When the taste for the useful parts of a seaman's knowledge is thus acquired, and the general outlines impressed on

the mind, young sailors would necessarily improve when living on board a ship, and when on shore in the king's dockyards, where they would recognise their former models on a magnificent scale.

A sailor's education need not be separated from a soldier's; they should both be taught at the same schools: and though the soldier's amusement might not be directed to making transoms or puttocks, or that of the sailor need not be the making of hornworks and gorges, yet each would obtain a general and useful acquaintance with the knowledge of both professions.

It cannot be reasonably supposed, that the observations that have here been made, on the insufficiency of the present modes of instruction for military pupils, are made to depreciate military academies; on the contrary, they are most strenúously recommended, as the only certain means of supplying our armies and navies with good officers; but it is wished to enlarge the views of those who conduct them, and to point out, that it is possible they might be improved.

How far it may be practicable to introduce methods of cultivating the inventive faculty among a number of pupils, it is not easy to determine; but it is certain, that by private assistants much might be effected to stimulate the minds of youth, and to induce them to employ their own powers upon the subjects, in which they are instructed. At great classical schools, private tuition is usually superadded; why may not this be practised in military academies?

Reading the lives of heroes inflames the mind with generous emulation; those who have distinguished themselves by military invention, should be particularly pointed out for imitation. For instance, when a boy is reading the Life of Chabrias in Cornelius Nepos, he should be led to observe, that for even a slight invention in the art of war statues were erected to the memory of this general. The statues of Chabrias represent him kneeling on one knee; these commemorate a victory which he obtained, by having taught his soldiers to receive the impulse of the enemy in that posture. With a similar spirit great honours were paid to Alexander for having invented silent signals for decampment, instead of the sound of trumpets. Indeed, invention has always been the characteristic of distinguished commanders; and in every system of military education, it should be sedulously encouraged.

In reading history the attention of students should be

Machiavel, in speaking of the necessity of invention to a great general, notices these two instances; but, by mistake, he attributes both to Alexander. "No man," says Machiavel, "ever made a figure in his profession without "invention; if invention is advantageous in other arts, in the art of war it confers "peculiar honour; and every invention, however trifling, is celebrated by an"cient writers. For instance, Alexander the Great is praised for having "made the signal for decamping secretly, by putting a helmet upon a lance "instead of sounding a trumpet: and also for having ordered his soldiers to "receive the enemy kneeling on the left knee, that they might bear the impetuosity of attack with more intrepidity; by which stratagem having ob"tained a victory, all the statues, that were afterwards erected to him, repre"sented him in this attitude, as a tribute of public applause."

Machiavelli Arte della Guerra, page 319. See Appendix for the original.