Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 2.djvu/199

PRKCEDING THE INVASION. 1G9 traeted, is far from being a good preparative for chap. the coininand of an army in the held ; because ^ a military office in time of peace is impelled by its very constitution to aim at uniformity ; and, on the other hand, the genius of war abhors uniformity, and tramples upon forms and re- gulations. An armed force is a means to an end — the end is victory over enemies ; and this is to be achieved, partly indeed by a due use of discipline and method, but partly also by keeping alive in those who may come to have command, a knowledge and love of war, and by cherishing that unla- belled, undocketed state of mind which shall enable a man to encounter the unknown. In England, however, and in mosf of the great States of Europe, the end had been so much for- gotten in pursuit of the means, and the industry exerted in the regulation of troops in peace-time had become so foreign to the business of war, that the more a man was militaiy in the nar- rowed sense of the term, the less he was likely to be fitted for the perturbing exigencies of a cam- paign. In one country this singular perversity of busy, ' cold, formal man,' had been carried so far, that an army and a war had been actually treated as things antagonistic the one to the other ; for the late Grand Duke Constantine of Eussia once declared that he dreaded a war, because he was sure it would spoil the troops, which, with ceaseless care and labour, he had striven to bring to perfection.