Mr Barlow, "that fine clothes are not
always of the consequence you imagine, since they are not able to give
their wearers either more strength or courage than they had before, nor
to preserve them from the attacks of those whose appearance is more
homely. But since you are so little acquainted with the business of a
soldier, I must show you a little more clearly in what it consists.
Instead, therefore, of all this pageantry, which seems so strongly to
have acted upon your mind, I must inform you that there is no human
being exposed to suffer a greater degree of hardship; he is often
obliged to march whole days in the most violent heat, or cold, or rain,
and frequently without victuals to eat, or clothes to cover him; and
when he stops at night, the most that he can expect is a miserable
canvas tent to shelter him, which is penetrated in every part by the
wet, and a little straw to keep his body from the damp unwholesome
earth. Frequently he cannot meet with even this, and is obliged to lie
uncovered upon the ground, by which means he contracts a thousand
diseases, which are more fatal than the cannon and weapons of the enemy.
Every hour he is exposed to engage in combats at the hazard of losing
his limbs, of being crippled or mortally wounded. If he gain the
victory, he generally has only to begin again and fight anew, till the
war is over; if he be beaten, he may probably lose his life upon the
spot, or be taken prisoner by the enemy, in which case he may languish
several months in a dreary prison, in want of all the necessaries of
life."

"Alas!" said Harry, "what a dreadful picture do you draw of the fate of
those brave men who suffer so much to defend their country. Surely those
who employ them should take care of them when they are sick, or wounded,
or incapable of providing for themselves."

"So indeed," answered Mr Barlow, "they ought to do; but rash and foolish
men engage in wars without either justice or reason, and when they are
over they think no more of the unhappy people who have served them at so
much loss to themselves."

_Harry._--Why, sir, I have often thought, that, as all wars consists in
shedding blood and doing mischief to our fellow-creatures they seldom
can be just.

_Mr Barlow._--You are indeed right there. Of all the blood that has
been shed since the beginning of the world to the present day, but very
little indeed has been owing to any cause that had either justice or
common sense.

_H