hed.
The building hums with activity, as does the whole town. A
fleet of motor cars is ready for instant action. Officers and
orderlies hurry constantly to and fro. There is an occasional
British uniform, a naval airman's armored car, and above all
the noise of this bustle, though lower in tone, the sound of
guns in the distance from Ypres.

The director of all this activity is General Foch. There in
the north he is putting his theories of war to the test with
as much success as he did at the outbreak of hostilities in
Lorraine and later in the centre during the battle of the
Marne. Although born with the brain of a mathematician,
General Foch's ideas upon war are by no means purely
scientific. He refuses, indeed, to regard war, and more
especially modern war, as an exact science. The developments
of science have, indeed, but increased the mental and moral
effort required of each participant, and it is only in the
passions aroused in each man by the conflict of conception of
life that the combatant finds the strength of will to
withstand the horrors of modern warfare.

General Foch is a philosopher as well as a fighter. He is one
of the rare philosophers who have proved the accuracy of their
ideas in the fire of battle. A typical instance of this is
given by "Miles" in a recent number of the Correspondant.
During the battle of the Marne the Germans made repeated
efforts to cut through the centre where General Foch commanded
between Sezanne and Mailly. On three consecutive days General
Foch was forced to retire. Every morning he resumed the
offensive, with the result that his obstinacy won the day. He
was able to profit by a false step by the enemy to take him in
the flank and defeat him.

General Foch's whole life and teaching were proved true in
those days. He has resolved the art of war into three
fundamental ideas--preparation, the formation of a mass, and
the multiplication of this mass in its use. In order to derive
the full benefit of the mass created it is necessary to have
freedom of action, and that is only obtained by intellectual
discipline. General Foch has written:

"Discipline for a leader does not mean the execution of orders
received in so far as they seem suitable, just reasonable, or
even possible.