r the family affections and
the consciousness of moral duties. The promise of plunder and the fear
of the gallows, a certain pride in his corps or his regiment, a certain
_esprit cocardier_, made of him a soldier. But the moral worth of the
modern recruit is derived from his family or from his school. "Very
scarce, indeed, are those whom the regiment transforms. Scarcer still
are those whom it will transform in the future. We are dupes of an
illusion. We see the young men leave the military service very different
from what they were when they entered it. We exclaim that the discipline
is wholesome, that the air of the barracks is vivifying, that the
regiment is a school of moral tendencies at the same time that it is a
sanitary establishment. Ah, no!... I do not believe, in fact, that the
moral qualities, that the civic virtues, are acquired in the caserne. If
they exist in a condition more or less latent in the recruit when he
arrives, they may be developed in him through the care of the officers,
as, moreover, they run the risk of shrivelling up if their cultivation
is neglected. But the result of this tardy education is always
sufficiently meagre. The evil natures, the vicious characters,
accentuate their defects, instead of attenuating them, under the
compression of discipline. It is not strong enough to master the souls
rebellious at the bottom. It chastises misconduct; it has no authority
over thought.... Therefore, it would be logical to diminish the duration
of the military service strictly to the minimum necessary to learn the
trade."

[Illustration: LIFE IN THE CASERNE: AN ESCAPADE.

From a drawing, in colors, by George Scott.]

And in summing up, after describing the "moral degradation" of the old
soldiers, he concludes: "Imagine what, in our modern society, can be a
soldier who re-enlists. He is a man who definitely bids adieu to family
affections, who desires simply a small, tranquil existence, regular,
well secured. This man is most decidedly a mediocre. Perhaps he may
render some service to the _bleus_; but he cannot be offered to them as
a model nor as a guide."

It is to be said, however, that not all the pictures drawn of this life
in the caserne are as gloomy as these. On this subject there is indeed
abundant information. Notwithstanding the respectable number of
exceptions provided by the more or less merciful various laws of
conscription,--the eldest of a family of orphans, the only brother of