It is
the same with soldiers; if drilled beyond a certain point, they
'drill off', and lose the spirit which they require to sustain them
in active service, and before the enemy. An over-drilled regiment
will seldom go through its evolutions well, even in ordinary review
before its own general. If it has all the mechanism, it wants all the
real spirit of military discipline--it becomes dogged, and is, in
fact, a body with but a soul. The martinet, who is seldom a man of
much intellect, is satisfied as long as the bodies of his men are
drilled to his liking; his narrow mind comprehends only one of the
principles which influence mankind--fear; and upon this he acts with
all the pertinacity of a slave-driver. If he does not disgrace
himself when he comes before the enemy, as he commonly does, by his
own incapacity, his men will perhaps try to disgrace him, even at the
sacrifice of what they hold dearer than their lives--their
reputation. The real soldier, who is generally a man of more
intellect, cares more about the feelings than the bodies of his men;
he wants to command their affections as well as their limbs, and he
inspires them with a feeling of enthusiasm that renders them
insensible to all danger--such men were Lord Lake, and Generals
Ochterlony, Malcolm, and Adams, and such are many others well known
in India.
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