EDGE. The thin or cutting part of a sword or sabre.
EDICT. See [Proclamation].
EDUCATION, in a military sense, implies the training up of youth to the art of war; the first object to be considered is, whether nature has given the young man the talents necessary for the profession or not; for here sense, parts, courage, and judgment, are required in a very eminent degree. The natural qualities of an officer are, a robust constitution, a noble open countenance, a martial genius, fire to produce activity, phlegm to moderate his transports, and patience to support the toils and fatigues of war, almost without seeming to feel them. Acquired qualities in an officer consist in moral virtues and sciences; by the first is meant, a regular good conduct, economy, prudence, and a serious application to what regards the service. Military sciences indispensibly demand the reading of ancient and modern historians; a good knowlege of military mathematics; and the study of the chief languages of Europe.
It is in ancient authors we find all that is excellent, either in politics or war: the make and form of arms are changed since the invention of gunpowder; but the science of war is always the same. On one hand, history instructs us by examples, and furnishes us with proofs, of the beautiful maxims of virtue and wisdom, which morality has taught us: it gives us a kind of experience, beforehand, of what we are to do in the world; it teaches us to regulate our life, and to conduct ourselves with wisdom, to understand mankind; ever to carry ourselves with integrity and probity, never to do a mean action; and to measure grandeur with the level of reason, that we may despise it when dangerous or ridiculous.
On the other hand, history serves to give us a knowlege of the universe, and the different nations which inhabit it; their prejudices, their governments, their interests, their commerce, their politics, and the law of nations. It shews us the origin of the illustrious men who have reigned in the world, and given birth to their successors.
The knowlege of military mathematics, regards the operations of war in general; every thing there consists in proportion, measure, and motion: it treats of marches, encampments, battles, artillery, fortification, lines, sieges, mines, ammunition, provisions, fleets, and every thing which relates to war; but no perfect notion can be acquired without geometry, natural philosophy, mechanics, military architecture, and the art of drawing.
The study of languages is most useful to an officer, and he feels the necessity of it, in proportion as he rises to higher employments. Thus the Latin, German, and French languages, are very necessary for an English officer; as the English, French, and Italian, are for a German.
French Military Education. He who undertakes to investigate the causes of the military superiority of the modern French, will, perhaps, be inclined to attach some importance to the facts contained in the following anecdote:
In the course of the winter of 1806, part of the pupils of the Prytaneum, at Paris, left that city to receive appointments as officers in the grand army in Poland. The route of these youths, of whom many had not obtained their full stature, and others had a weakly appearance, though they were neither so small nor so weak as were formerly many subalterns in the Prussian army—led them through Berlin. An officer accompanied them in quality of inspector. They passed one night in that capital.
A well-informed inhabitant of the city, who had formerly been in the army, and possessing considerable military attainments, had occasion to be in the neighborhood of their quarters. Their juvenile appearance induced him to ask the officer who accompanied them, whether these youths would be capable of enduring the fatigues and dangers of field encampments in a northern climate, at so inclement a season, and in such a country as Poland. The officer, a polite and sensible man, made this reply:—