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INTRODUCTION

Shortly before the American Revolution, Timothy Pickering wrote a drill regulation for the use of the militia. In the introduction he said: "To remedy the want of experience, as much as possible the militia should be let into the ground and reason of every action and movement." The purpose of these talks is to let you into the ground and reason of military education.

The kind of soldier that interests us is one who finds satisfaction in serving a cause, and who has learned to expend his energies to the best advantage for that cause. He must be physically developed, trained to conserve health, and he must perform with technical skill his part in every incident. Besides these qualifications, he must have the mind of a soldier.

We wish you to know how the mind of a soldier is attained, and what there is in human nature out of which it is built. In reference to this phase of soldier-making I intend, so far as I am able, to let you into the ground and reason of the training which produces such a mind.

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To attain the right kind of mind is the important step. There is an ideal mind, which is characterized by a tendency to correct action and supreme satisfaction in such action.

This doing and feeling is shot through and through with energy, abandon, restraint, and sentiments of loyalty. The training of mind and body for correct feeling and action is the important part of military education. Much of correct action depends upon acquiring correct habits, but the emotional tone, which furnishes most of the driving force of our activities, comes from cultivating and training our inherited habits, which are called instincts. There is undoubtedly an intellectual satisfaction in doing what we consider right, but, with most men, the main satisfaction comes from the functioning of instincts. The farmer who keeps a dog to protect his premises trains the animal to certain habits, but he relies principally upon the nature of the beast. To a larger extent a nation trains its fighting force in correct military habits, but the energy of a soldierly mind comes, in a large measure, from human nature. We shall, in these talks, discuss soldier-making in connection with habits and human

nature.

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