upon which a
more advanced education is to be built. This theory is in general
practice, and has been so accepted. The service schools at Fort Monroe,
Fort Totten, Fort Riley, Fort Leavenworth, and the War College at
Washington are, in most respects, high-class post-graduate schools. In
addition of this, every post is a school of application, educating
officers and men for the duties now required of them."

What, then, is this training of the army for which the officer must
possess this most accurate, thorough, and scientific education? He is
required to have this education that he may train the soldier up to the
highest point of efficiency. The officer must know, and must be able to
impress the soldier with the fact that he _does_ know. The officer must
have the full _science_ of everything pertaining to the soldier's work,
in order that he may teach the soldier the _art_ of it. The nature of
the training to which the soldier is subjected may be best understood by
considering its end. This, as in all training, is more important than
the method. The primary object of the training is to unify the army and
make it the efficient instrument for executing the nation's will. By
discipline, individual efforts are brought under control of the chief. A
company is well disciplined when, in its movement, its collective soul,
so to speak, is identified with that of its commander. The officer must
have possession of his men, so that when the command is given, an
electric current will seem to pass through the company, and the movement
will, as it were, execute itself. In a well-drilled and well-disciplined
company, the orders do not seem to pass through the intellects of the
men. Without reflection, but simply by concentrated attention, the work
is done. The wills of the men are not only temporarily dislodged, but in
their place is substituted the dominant will of the commander. This is
the psychological end sought; and this condition secures instantaneous
obedience to orders. It is this which brings about those marvels of
execution which occur among disciplined men. Men perform acts in which
neither their personal reason nor even their personal will has any part.

A second end of the training is to habituate the men so firmly in the
performance of certain movements that no emotion can interfere with
their action. Upon the battle-field there is nothing left of the
exercises of the times of peace, but that which has become a habit, or