formal debate, or attempting to overthrow
the arguments of others.

It is observed, sir, that for the greatest part, the farther any man has
advanced in life, the less confidence he places in speculation, and the
more he learns to rest upon experience, as the only sure guide in human
affairs; and as the transactions in which he is engaged are more
important, with the greater anxiety does he inquire after precedents,
and the more timorously does he proceed, when he is obliged to regulate
his conduct by conjecture or by deliberation.

This remark, sir, though it may be just with regard to all states of
life, is yet more constantly and certainly applicable to that of the
soldier; because, as his profession is more hazardous than any other, he
must with more caution guard against miscarriages and errours. The old
soldier, therefore, very rarely ventures beyond the verge of experience,
unless in compliance with particular accidents, which does not make any
change in his general scheme, or in situations where nothing can
preserve him but some new stratagem or unprecedented effort, which are
not to be mentioned as part of his original plan of operation, because
they are produced always by unforeseen emergencies, and are to be
imputed, not to choice, but to necessity; for, in consequence of my
first principle, an old soldier never willingly involves himself in
difficulties, or proceeds in such a manner as that he may not expect
success by the regular operations of war.

It will not, therefore, be strange, if I, who, having served in the
army, in the wars of king William, may justly claim the title of an old
soldier, should not easily depart from the methods established in my
youth; methods of which their effects have shown me, that they at least
answer the intention for which they were contrived, and which,
therefore, I shall be afraid of rejecting, lest those which it is
proposed to substitute in their place, however probable in speculation,
should be found defective in practice, and the reasonings, which,
indeed, I cannot answer, should be confuted in the field, where
eloquence has very little power.

The troops of Britain, formed according to the present establishment,
have been found successful; they have preserved the liberties of Europe,
and driven the armies of France before them; they have appeared equally
formidable in sieges and in battles, and with strength equally
irresistible have pressed forward in the field,