of mind which works,
steadily and by rule, from the known to the unknown; that habit of mind
of which it has been said:--"The habit of seeing; the habit of knowing
what we see; the habit of discerning differences and likenesses; the
habit of classifying accordingly; the habit of searching for hypotheses
which shall connect and explain those classified facts; the habit of
verifying these hypotheses by applying them to fresh facts; the habit of
throwing them away bravely if they will not fit; the habit of general
patience, diligence, accuracy, reverence for facts for their own sake,
and love of truth for its own sake; in one word, the habit of reverent
and implicit obedience to the laws of Nature, whatever they may be--these
are not merely intellectual, but also moral habits, which will stand men
in practical good stead in every affair of life, and in every question,
even the most awful, which may come before them as rational and social
beings." And specially valuable are they, surely, to the military man,
the very essence of whose study, to be successful, lies first in
continuous and accurate observation, and then in calm and judicious
arrangement.

Therefore it is that I hold, and hold strongly, that the study of
physical science, far from interfering with an officer's studies, much
less unfitting for them, must assist him in them, by keeping his mind
always in the very attitude and the very temper which they require. If
any smile at this theory of mine, let them recollect one curious fact:
that perhaps the greatest captain of the old world was trained by perhaps
the greatest philosopher of the old world--the father of Natural History;
that Aristotle was the tutor of Alexander of Macedon. I do not fancy, of
course, that Aristotle taught Alexander any Natural History. But this we
know, that he taught him to use those very faculties by which Aristotle
became a natural historian, and many things beside; that he called out in
his pupil somewhat of his own extraordinary powers of observation,
extraordinary powers of arrangement. He helped to make him a great
general: but he helped to make him more--a great politician, coloniser,
discoverer. He instilled into him such a sense of the importance of
Natural History, that Alexander helped him nobly in his researches; and,
if Athenaeus is to be believed, gave him 800 talents towards perfecting
his history of animals. Surely it is not too much to say that this close
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