ensuing birth and development of the mechanic
arts. Before Moltke's time campaigns were won by wise preparation and
skilful execution, as they are now; but the strategical skill was
acquired by a general or admiral almost wholly by his own exertions
in war, and by studying the campaigns of the great commanders,
and reflecting upon them with an intensity that so embedded their
lessons in his subjective mind that they became a part of him, and
actions in conformity with those lessons became afterward almost
automatic. Alexander and Napoleon are perhaps the best illustrations
of this passionate grasping of military principles; for though
both had been educated from childhood in military matters, the
science of strategy was almost non-existent in concrete form, and
both men were far too young to have been able to devote much time
or labor to it. But each was a genius of the highest type, and
reached decisions at once immediate and wise, not by inspiration,
but by mental efforts of a pertinacity and concentratedness impossible
to ordinary men.

It was because Von Moltke realized this, realized the folly of
depending on ability to get geniuses on demand, and realized further
the value of ascertaining the principles of strategy, and then
expressing them so clearly that ordinary men could grasp and use
them, that he conceived and carried into execution his plan; whereby
not only actual battles could be analyzed, and the causes of victory
and defeat in each battle laid bare to students, but also hypothetical
wars and battles could be fought by means of problems given.

The first result of a course of study of such wars and battles, and
practice with such problems, was a skill in decision a little like
that developed in any competitive game, say tennis, whist, chess,
poker, boxing, and the like--whereby any action of your adversary
brings an instantaneous and almost automatic reply from you, that you
could not have made so skilfully and quickly before you had practised
at the game; and yet the exact move of your adversary, under the
same conditions, you had never seen before. Of course, this skill
was a development, not of the science, but of the art, as mere skill
always is; but as skill developed, the best methods for obtaining
skill were noted; and the principles governing the attainment of
success gradually unveiled themselves, and were formulated into
a science.

Naturally, strategy is not an exact science like mathemati