practice, and assisted by appropriate means. In the engineering
arts, the practice is gotten by observing and remembering actual
machines; and the assistance is given by drawings of different kinds.
In strategy, the practice is given by observing and remembering the
movements of actual fleets; and the assistance by means of drawings
of different kinds, and by war problems, and the game-board. The
game-board represents a number of successive pictures, and is not
very different in principle from moving-pictures. In fact, the
suggestion has been made repeatedly for several years and is now
in process of development that the various situations in tactical
games might advantageously be photographed on films and afterward
projected in rapid succession on a screen.

One of the curious limitations of the naval game board, both in
tactical and strategic games, is that it takes no account of personnel;
that it assumes that all the various units are manned by crews
that are adequate both in numbers and in training. Of course, it
would be impracticable to test say the relative values of kinds
of vessels, unless all the factors of the problem were the same,
except the two factors that were competing. Therefore the limitation
mentioned is not mentioned as a criticism, but simply to point
out that the game-board, in common with most of the other means
of discussion in naval matters, has gradually led people to think
of naval matters in terms of material units only. That such an
unfortunate state of affairs has come to pass can be verified by
reading almost any paper, even professional, that speaks about
navies; for one will be confronted at once with the statement that
such and such a navy consists of such and such ships, etc. Since
when has a navy consisted of brass and iron? Since when has the mind
and character of man taken a place subordinate to matter? At what
time did the change occur whereby the instrument employed dominated
the human being who employed it? That this is not an academic point,
or an unimportant thing to bear in mind is evidenced by countless
facts in history. In order not to tire the reader, mention will be
made of only one fact, the well-known fight between the American
frigate _Chesapeake_, and the British frigate _Shannon_ to which
I have already referred. These two ships were almost identical
in size and in the number and kinds of guns, and in the number
of officers and crew, and the battle was fought on J