The life of a modern ſoldier is ill repreſented by heroick fiction. War has means of deſtruction more formidable than the cannon and the ſword. Of the thouſands and ten thouſands that periſhed in our late conteſts with France and Spain, a very ſmall part ever felt the ſtroke of an enemy; the reſt languiſhed in tents and ſhips, amidſt damps and putrefaction; pale, torpid, ſpiritleſs, and helpleſs; gaſping and groaning, unpitied among men, made obdurate by long continuance of hopeleſs miſery; and were at laſt whelmed in pits, or heaved into the ocean, without notice and without remembrance. By incommodious encampments and unwholeſome ſtations, where courage is uſeleſs, and enterpriſe impracticable, fleets are ſilently diſpeopled, and armies ſluggiſhly melted away.
Thus is a people gradually exhauſted, for the moſt part with little effect. The wars of civilized nations make very ſlow changes
