be more fuitable to his views and duties, than of that science, and of those principles and habits, on which all his future excellence and usefulness depends? One man may be honest, though deftitute of dexterity or learning; another may be learned, without corporal or mental strength; and another may fucceed in various employments, without either courage, wifdom, or virtue: but a foldier requires the united force of all these qualities, and the want of any one of them must render his character defective.

In most manual arts, and in fome sciences, a ftated course of feveral years is allotted for the inftruction of students, when theory and practice mutually contribute to their improvement; and he will be found the greatest proficient, who has established his practice on the most accurate and best digested theory: and though, in the effufions of that esteem which is always felt for eminent talents, it may be faid, that a man is born an orator, a poet, a painter, and even a foldier; yet it is certain, that correctness and great mastery are derived, not from nature but art, not from genius but study.

It

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It is the obfervation of Folard, that "war is a science for the ingenious, and a calling

only for the ignorant:" but, as a science, it cannot poffibly be acquired, without a continual study and application of the best formed rules and precepts, a combination of all poffible events in their minutest complications, and conclufions deduced therefrom and treasured up in the mind ready for fervice: whereas in practice alone, though enlarged by the experience of many campaigns, the mind must remain blind to the event of numberless operations, and always liable to be disconcerted by the capricious turns of fortune.

But, between theory and practice, when placed in competition, let history determine which has the fuperior excellence; and history has given many examples of great generals fuddenly produced from the fruitful fource of anteriour study, but of none who left their knowledge to be acquired folely. by practice. Alexander, Cyrus, Pyrrhus, Scipio, and many more, stepped at once from theory to the chief command of great armies, and almost as foon as they appeared were known in the characters of commanders and victors. That the greatest fuccefs,

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fuccefs, and the most useful instruction, may arise folely from the operations of the mind on a rational and well digested knowledge acquired by study, the examples of Zifca, general of the Huffites, and of Count Pagan, are incontrovertible proofs: both, in the prime of life, furnished the most important leffons in the art of war, the one by his victories, and the other by his fystems of fortification; both were blind, and, therefore, had theory chiefly for their guide. Inftances like these, even in barbarous times, must have evinced the fuperiority of theory over practice, when placed in a comparative view.

The antients, not lefs eminent for a profound knowledge of the mysteries of war than the moderns, were more convinced of the vaft importance of preparatory theory, of the abfolute defect of practice fingly, and of the indispensable neceffity of both in continual union. They established public schools for inftructing their youth in this fcience by rule and precept illuftrated by practice; and those republics that could not bear the expence of a military institution in its fullest extent, encouraged masters by honorary rewards to read ftated lectures on

the

the fubject: and thus, in the leisure of peace, and by an extensive theory, the Greeks and Romans prepared themselves for war. Xanthippus and Gylippus, two fubaltern officers of Sparta, illustrated their training in this form and brought lafting honour to themselves and their country, the one by gaining the battle of Tunis, in Africa, against Regulus, and the other by faving Syracufe.

But convinced as I am of the neceffity of the most highly improved theory, it is far from my idea that it should ever be feparated from practice: I have been arguing only against thofe, who are bent upon the difunion, upon repudiating theory with indelible difgrace. I confider theory only as anticipated practice, and practice as the natural illustration and proof of theory; and the warmest advocates for theory have never confidered it in any other light: Xenophon fays, in many paffages of his works, that "every thing must be referred to action." They are like light and substance, irradiating and giving ftrength and beauty to each other; like the foul and body of the art of war, whose diffolution must be fucceeded by darkness and death.

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I will even venture to affert, that the continual application of theory to practice, is more -necessary in military science, than in any other. This forms the criterion, by which alone the different attainments of young students can be justly estimated; and most honour is due to him, who has fecured his advances step by step, confirmed his theory by an accurate practice, and acquired a facility of applying his knowledge to real occasions, by continually proving and illustrating the truth of it by those that are feigned. The ultimate end of war is fingularly great and important; and the attainment of it depends upon means various in their nature, and almost endless in their combinations: and from the oppofition of art to art, and of ftrength to ftrength, added to the intervention of uncontrollable natural caufes, fuch new, fudden, and critical revolutions must frequently arise, as require the immediate exercise and application, not only of all the fortitude, but also of all the knowledge of which the human mind is capable.

In the course of the preceding obfervations, it is hoped that the principal points I have endeavoured