from the strict connection of events everything new which
he brought to market, and sought to prove from history.

When we are convinced of these difficulties in the use of historical
examples, and at the same time of the necessity (of making use of such
examples), then we shall also come to the conclusion that the latest
military history is naturally the best field from which to draw them,
inasmuch as it alone is sufficiently authentic and detailed.

In ancient times, circumstances connected with War, as well as the
method of carrying it on, were different; therefore its events are
of less use to us either theoretically or practically; in addition to
which, military history, like every other, naturally loses in the course
of time a number of small traits and lineaments originally to be seen,
loses in colour and life, like a worn-out or darkened picture; so that
perhaps at last only the large masses and leading features remain, which
thus acquire undue proportions.

If we look at the present state of warfare, we should say that the Wars
since that of the Austrian succession are almost the only ones which,
at least as far as armament, have still a considerable similarity to
the present, and which, notwithstanding the many important changes which
have taken place both great and small, are still capable of affording
much instruction. It is quite otherwise with the War of the Spanish
succession, as the use of fire-arms had not then so far advanced towards
perfection, and cavalry still continued the most important arm. The
farther we go back, the less useful becomes military history, as it gets
so much the more meagre and barren of detail. The most useless of all is
that of the old world.

But this uselessness is not altogether absolute, it relates only to
those subjects which depend on a knowledge of minute details, or on
those things in which the method of conducting war has changed. Although
we know very little about the tactics in the battles between the Swiss
and the Austrians, the Burgundians and French, still we find in them
unmistakable evidence that they were the first in which the superiority
of a good infantry over the best cavalry was, displayed. A general
glance at the time of the Condottieri teaches us how the whole method
of conducting War is dependent on the instrument used; for at no period
have the forces used in War had so much the characteristics of a special
instrument, and been a class so totally dis