a part of the soldier's character. It is upon him that the other classes of the community, who are occupied with the various business of civil life, depend for their safety, and protection: they consider a soldier as at all times ready to shed his blood for the liberty, the honour, and the glory of his country; for the preservation of their property, the defence of his sovereign, and the public good.

BUT this noble devotedness will excite the gratitude and esteem of your fellow-citizens, only in proportion as your talents are rendered useful to the state, and found to merit its confidence. This is what you must be ainbitious to obtain; and this is the only road that, apart from the aid of patronage, can conduct you to eminence. Without this laudable emulation, however brave you may be, you may for ever remain in the lowest ranks. You must look for success in your career, solely to your own courage and conduct. If the principles which I have impressed upon your youth, cannot inspire you with this generous emulation, without which the path to glory and to honour, is a path only of difficulty,-stop here, and unite yourself at once with the humbler rank of citizen: I should feel less mortified by your obscurity, and it would be less disgraceful

to yourself, to live unknown and undistinguished, than to fail in a career upon which you ought not to enter without the resolution to arrive at honourable distinction, or to die crowned with the applauses of your sovereign and your country.

Do not suffer this view of your situation to discourage you, but on the contrary, let it inflame your bosom with that heroic enthusiasm, with which it is my object to inspire you, and which can alone conduct you to eminence and honour. I will attempt to delineate the path which you are called to tread. I shall not perhaps show it, as it may have been presented to you, strewed only with flowers: but consider, that the more painful it is, the more honourable; and that in proportion as the commencement is difficult, the end will be glorious. Let this urge you to be laborious, persevering, indefatigable: for if you suffer yourself to be discouraged in your course, you will never arrive at the goal.

You will find in these letters, the fruit of my experience and of my reflections. "He that confines himself to his own views only," says an old author," however just they may be, is, in most cases, less likely to improve, than he that adopts, compares, and enlarges upon, the thoughts of others. In all ages, men have been accustomed

to think from one another. It is only after an attention to the best authors, and consulting such as have drawn their reflections from experience, that we can treat with confidence any subject upon which we design to write.”

THE various instructions contained in my future following letters shall be supported by facts recorded in history. Thus the precept and the example confirming each other, will, I trust, produce the effects I so ardently desire. Consider them well; familiarise your mind with the maxims of the illustrious warriors and great men whose language I have borrowed, and make their sentiments the rule of your actions; they will assuredly conduct you to glory and to happiness. May I live to be the witness of this, and may it be one day my greatest pride to be called your father!

6

LETTER II.

ON HEALTH AND BODILY STRENGTH.

NATURE has in vain been lavish of her endowments, and in vain will an officer have acquired all the intellectual qualifications necessary to his station, if he is so unfortunate as to be prevented, by constitutional weakness, from availing himself of these advantages, and is unable to support the fatigues of a campaign. "Health," says Montaigne, "is one of the most precious of gifts; without this, life itself is scarcely tolerable: pleasure, wisdom, learning, and virtue, destitute of this, lose all their attractions."

He then who devotes himself to the profession of arms, ought to do every thing in his power to preserve a treasure so inestimable, and to avoid every excess which might endanger it. Choose your pleasures, and enjoy them: but let them be of such a character as reason and honour may approve; and in order to possess them long, partake of them sparingly. Young men, thinking they have so much health and time be

fore them, are very apt to neglect or lavish both, and reduce themselves before they are aware: whereas a prudent economy in each, far from breaking in upon their pleasures, would improve, and almost perpetuate them. Be wiser, my son; and before it is too late, manage both with care and frugality; and lay out neither, but upon good interest and security. The elder Scipio was never known to give into the fashionable debaucheries and excesses to which the young people at Rome wantonly abandoned themselves. But he was sufficiently compensated for this selfdenial of all destructive pleasures, by the vigorous health he enjoyed during his whole life; which enabled him to taste pleasures of a much purer and more exalted kind, and to perform the actions that reflected so much glory upon him. How deplorable is the lot of him, who by his excesses is rendered prematurely infirm! We see frequent examples of those who, incapable of resisting the allurements of indolence, have closed an inglorious life, by a death yet more disgraceful. Excesses which lead to such a termination, cannot surely be pleasures suited to a delicate and sensible mind.

The military profession is not designed for debauchees, nor for such as are too fond of ease: