ooked at in the same light as any
other. Happy the Army in which an untimely boldness frequently manifests
itself; it is an exuberant growth which shows a rich soil. Even
foolhardiness, that is boldness without an object, is not to be
despised; in point of fact it is the same energy of feeling, only
exercised as a kind of passion without any co-operation of the
intelligent faculties. It is only when it strikes at the root of
obedience, when it treats with contempt the orders of superior
authority, that it must be repressed as a dangerous evil, not on its own
account but on account of the act of disobedience, for there is nothing
in War which is of GREATER IMPORTANCE THAN OBEDIENCE.

The reader will readily agree with us that, supposing an equal degree of
discernment to be forthcoming in a certain number of cases, a thousand
times as many of them will end in disaster through over-anxiety as
through boldness.

One would suppose it natural that the interposition of a reasonable
object should stimulate boldness, and therefore lessen its intrinsic
merit, and yet the reverse is the case in reality.

The intervention of lucid thought or the general supremacy of mind
deprives the emotional forces of a great part of their power. On that
account BOLDNESS BECOMES OF RARER OCCURRENCE THE HIGHER WE ASCEND THE
SCALE OF RANK, for whether the discernment and the understanding do or
do not increase with these ranks still the Commanders, in their several
stations as they rise, are pressed upon more and more severely by
objective things, by relations and claims from without, so that they
become the more perplexed the lower the degree of their individual
intelligence. This so far as regards War is the chief foundation of the
truth of the French proverb:--

"Tel brille au second qui s' e'clipse an premier."

Almost all the Generals who are represented in history as merely having
attained to mediocrity, and as wanting in decision when in supreme
command, are men celebrated in their antecedent career for their
boldness and decision.(*)

(*) Beaulieu, Benedek, Bazaine, Buller, Melas, Mack. &c. &c.

In those motives to bold action which arise from the pressure of
necessity we must make a distinction. Necessity has its degrees of
intensity. If it lies near at hand, if the person acting is in the
pursuit of his object driven into great dangers in order to escape
others equally great, then we can only admire his resolution,
which s