quarters.

This result of my labours has encouraged me in the preparation of this
new edition to make use of all the latest experience, to bring out
with additional clearness essential points, and to add much new
material.

I trust that in this manner I have materially increased the practical
value of the work, and hope that in its new form it will continue to
exert its silent influence, winning new supporters for my views, and
helping to gain for the splendid Arm to which I belong the place
which, in the interest of the whole Army, it deserves.

THE AUTHOR.

STRAZBURG, IN THE WINTER OF 1902.

AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION

It would be difficult for a layman to form even an approximate
conception of the amount of work annually accomplished in the German
Army.

The very vivid consciousness stirring everywhere as to the magnitude
of the demands the not far distant future may make upon us, and the
knowledge that the means with which we are compelled to work are
certainly not always in agreement with our ideals, incite us to strain
every nerve to make the most of what we have; and I believe I am not
far wrong in asserting that it is the Cavalry Arm which, under
pressure of circumstances, responds to these demands with the greatest
avidity. This is, in fact, but the necessary consequence of the
many-sidedness of our duties.

Whether, however, the end and aim of all our exertions is everywhere
attained must remain an open question.

In every long period of peace there lurks the danger that methods of
training may deviate after false ideals, lose themselves in the cult
of imposing appearances, and in the clash of individual opinions fail
to distinguish the essential--_i.e._, what is really practicable under
the conditions of active service.

This danger is all the more imminent when the characters and forms of
Warfare itself are constantly changing; hence, ever new demands have
to be made upon the troops themselves, and the exact bearing of each
of these is not easily to be appreciated in the humdrum surroundings
of our peace-time duties.

It seems, therefore, a most pressing necessity at the present moment,
when changes in social conditions and constant technical progress are
exerting on the external phenomena and conditions of Warfare a steady
pressure in the direction of modification, that we should compare our
peace training with the requirement