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.  It means that you have entirely grasped the ideas of the leader who has given the order and that you take every possible means of satisfying him.  Discipline does not mean silence, abstention, only doing what appears to you possible without compromising yourself; it is not the practice of the art of avoiding responsibilities.  On the contrary, it is action in the sense of orders received.”

Fifteen years ago at the Ecole de Guerre General Foch was fond of quoting Joseph de Maistre’s remark, “A battle lost is a battle which one believes to have lost, for battles are not lost materially,” and of adding, “Battles are therefore lost morally, and it is therefore morally that they are won.”  The aphorism can be extended by this one:  “A battle won is a battle in which one will not admit one’s self vanquished.”  As “Miles” remarks, “He did as he had said.”

Ernest Dimnet in The London Saturday Review has this to say in part about Foch and his two widely known books: 

During his two terms of service at the Ecole de Guerre he produced two considerable works, “Principes de la Guerre” and “De la Conduite de La Guerre,” which give a high idea of their author’s character and talent.  There is nothing in them that ought to scare away the average reader.  Their style has the geometrical lucidity which is the polytechnician’s birthright, but in spite of the deliberate impersonality