GREAT GENERALS AND WORKERS
their conqubst op nature,
Life does not consist 60 much in drawing conclusions 'as in acting upon them. It is coloured by the sufficiency or otherwise of the conclusions, but whatever that may be, the life may still be virile. Courage, resource, and initiative are the qualities that enable a man to fill a great part in the world. When they are combined with the faculty of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient promises wo have a Napoleon, the man who can discover opportunities, or oreate them if they do not exist. The great thing is.that a man have the courage to do something, to enter into thei conflict with Nature and attempt to direct .her forces into hitherto unatte«M channels. Sometimes they wll wfusa his guidance, and then' he wiH needl to take comfort from the proverb. He who has never made a mistake has achieved "Smii'i'tary affairs the faculty of fom; ing sufficient conclusions from oient premises counts Wellington was once driving with a friend throngh an unfamiliar conntry, and the two amused themselves bv guessing what thev would find beyond each turn of the road. Wellington was by far the more successful of the two, and explained the fact bv saying that a great part of his life had boon passed in guessing what was happening "on the other side of the hill" The construction of the lines at Torres Vedras -hows that he rightly that his opponent would drive him back to the m, while it also demonstrates that Massena never anticipated that Wellington had (constructed .tn impregnable fortress into which to retreat. On the other hand Wellington made a •bad guess when ho kept 18,000 men on the Mons road during the Battle of Waterloo, on the assumption that Napoleon would endeavour to turn his right flank. Those men would have been very useful in the battle, and would ha\B rendered Wellington much less dependent on Blucher's aid. However, he won the day, and this was what he bet out to do. _ Tho engineer, unlike the military man, does not tfuess in competition with ol | opponent like himself, gu«ses against Nature, rnd although this is. redoubtable antagonist, it at any rat? plays 110 tricks.- Under uniform conditions its action is uniform. ITnfortunatly conditions are very soldom ' and it is often quite impossible to deteimino beforehand cither what they are r how they will affect other and calculable forces of whioh they will fo rl " "»e en vironment.
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Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 48, 20 November 1917, Page 6
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415GREAT GENERALS AND WORKERS Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 48, 20 November 1917, Page 6
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