rap which
could be found of the work of so fruitful a military thinker was
presently called for, and at the moment of the outbreak of the present
war the "Etudes sur le Combat" had become the text-book of every
punctilious young officer. It is still unknown how much of the
magnificent effort of 1914 was not due to the shade of Ardent du Picq.
Although the name of that author does not occur in the pages of "Ma
Piece," we are constrained to believe that Lintier had been, like so
many young men of his class, an infatuated student of the "Etudes." He
had comprehended the essence of military vitality and the secret of
military grandeur. He had perceived the paramount importance of moral
force in contending with formidable hostile organizations. Ardent du
Picq, who possessed the skill of his nation in the manufacture of
maxims, laid it down that "Vaincre, c'est d'etre sur de la victoire."
He assented to the statement that it was a spiritual and not a
mechanical ascendancy which had gained battles in the past and must
gain them in the future. Very interesting it is to note, in the
delicately scrupulous record of the mind and conscience of Paul
Lintier, how, side by side with this uplifted patriotic confidence,
the weakness of the flesh makes itself felt. At Tailly, full of the
hope of coming battle, waiting in the moonlit forest for the sound of
approaching German guns, suddenly the heroism drops from him, and he
murmurs the plaintive verses of the old poet Joachim du Bellay to the
echo of "Et je mourrai peut-etre demain!" The delicate sureness with
which he notes these changes of mood is admirable; and quickly the
depression passes: "vite notre extraordinaire insouciance l'emporte,
et puis, jamais heure a-t-elle ete plus favorable a la revanche?"

In defining the particular principles which have actuated the
magnificent French General Staff in the present crisis, Lord Haldane
has dwelt on the fact that the French have displayed throughout "that
moral effect which comes from certainty of purpose and which only
concentrated thought can give." The value which the higher authority
sets on the cultivation of moral enthusiasm is exemplified by the fact
that the French Ministry of War has encouraged the publication of
those personal records, from which we have here made a selection, on
the ground that they carry throughout the army a contagion of energy
and courage. We are far here from the obscure jealousy of thought
which made a