y at all. So, the next
paragraph is not intended to detract in the slightest from Sherman
and his army, but simply to point out the change in conditions
that mechanical progress has brought about.

The statement of comparison is simply that when General Sherman
marched from Atlanta to the sea his army composed 62,000 men, and
it took him twenty-five days to go about 230 land miles or 200 sea
miles; and when Admiral Schroeder went from our coast to Europe he
had 16 ships, and he made the trip of more than 3,000 sea miles in
less than fourteen days. Disregarding twenty-eight 5-inch guns, two
hundred and fifty-two 3-inch guns, and a lot of smaller guns, and
disregarding all the torpedoes, Admiral Schroeder took eighty-four
12-inch guns, ninety-six 8-inch guns, eighty-eight 7-inch guns,
and forty-eight 6-inch guns, _all mounted and available_; which,
assuming the power of the modern musket as a unit, equalled more
than 5,000,000 modern muskets.

Such an enormous transfer of absolute, definite, available power
would be impossible on land, simply because no means has been devised
to accomplish it. Such a transfer on land would be the transfer
of ninety times as many soldiers as Sherman had (even supposing
they had modern muskets) over fifteen times the distance and at
thirty times the speed; and as the work done in going from one
place to another varies practically as the square of the speed, a
transfer on land equivalent in magnitude and speed to Schroeder's
would be a performance 90 x 15 x 30^2= 1,215,000 times as great
as Sherman's.

This may seem absurd, and perhaps it is; but why? The comparison
is not between the qualities of the men or between the results
achieved. Great results often are brought about by very small forces,
as when some state of equilibrium is disturbed, and vice versa. The
comparison attempted is simply between the _power_ of a certain
army and the power of a certain fleet. And while it is true that,
for some purposes, such as overcoming small resistance, great power
may not be as efficacious as feeble power or even gentleness, yet,
nevertheless, it must be clear that, for the overcoming of _great_
resistance quickly great power must be applied.

The existence of a certain power is quite independent of the
desirability of using it. The existence of the power is all the
writer wishes to insist upon at present; the question of its employment
will be considered later.

Not only is the power of a