in taking as the
base of all strategical and tactical instruction the study of history
completed by the study of military history--that is to say, field
operations, orders given, actions, results, and criticisms to be made and
the instructions to be drawn from them. He also used concrete
cases--that is to say, problems laid by the director on the map or on the
actual ground.

"By this intellectual training he accustomed the officers to solving all
problems, not by giving them ready-made solutions, but by making them
find the logical solution to each individual case.

"His mind was trained through so many years of study that no war
situation could disturb him. In the most difficult ones, he quickly
pointed out the goal to be reached and the means to employ, and each one
of us felt that it must be right."

But best of all the things said about Foch in that period of his life, I
like this, by Charles Dawbarn, in the _Fortnightly Review_:

"Such was"--in spite of many disappointments--"_his fine confidence in
life, that he communicated to others not his grievances, but his secret
satisfactions_."

IX

THE GREAT TEACHER

Foch made the men who sat under him love their work for the work's sake
and not for its rewards. He fired them with an ardor for military art
which made them feel that in all the world there is nothing so
fascinating, so worth while, as knowing how to defend one's country
when she needs defense.

He was able, in peace times when the military spirit was little
applauded and much decried, to give his students an enthusiasm for
"preparedness" which flamed as high and burned as pure as that which
ordinarily is lighted only by a great national rush to arms to save the
country from ravage.

It was tremendously, incalculably important for France and for all of
us that Ferdinand Foch was eager and able to impart this enthusiasm for
military skill.

But also it is immensely important, to-day, when the war is won, and in
all days and all walks of life, that there be those who can kindle and
keep alight the enthusiasm of their fellows; who can overlook the
failure of their own ardor and faithfulness to win its fair reward, and
convey to others only the alluring glow of their "secret satisfactions."

In the five years, 1895-1901 (his work at the school was interrupted by
politics in 1901), "many hundreds of officers," as Rene Puaux says,
"the very elite of the general staffs of our army, followe