Nothing which does not strike the imagination has any value in their eyes.

A uniform does not make a soldier; and although they have all arrayed themselves in uniform, they are far worse soldiers than the peasantry who have been enrolled in the Mobiles.

To tell them this, however, would make them highly indignant.
Military glory is their passion, and it is an unfortunate one.

To admire the pomp and pride of glorious war no more makes a warrior than to admire poetry makes a poet.

The Parisian is not a coward; but his individuality is so strongly developed that he objects to that individuality being destroyed by some stray shot.