If this be either ungifted by nature, or uninstructed by study and reflection, the best plans of manoeuvre and campaign avail nothing.

The two last centuries have presented many revolutions in military character, all of which have turned on this principle.

It would be useless to enumerate these.

We shall quote only the greatest and the last--_The troops of Frederick!_ How illustrious under him! How contemptible under his successors! Yet his system was there; his double lines of march at full distance; his oblique order of battle; his simple lines of manoeuvre in the presence of an enemy; his wise conformation of an _etat-major;_--all, in short, that distinguished his practice from that of ordinary men, survived him; but the head that truly comprehended and knew how to apply these, died with Frederick.

What an admonition does this fact present for self-instruction,--for unwearied diligence,--for study and reflection! Nor should the force of this be lessened by the consideration that, after all, unless nature should have done her part of the work,--unless to a soul not to be shaken by any changes of fortune--cool, collected, and strenuous--she adds a head fertile in expedients, prompt in its decisions, and sound in its judgments, no man can ever merit the title of a _general_." The celebrated Marshal Saxe has made the following remarks on the necessary qualifications to form a good general.