Military life in Italy : sketches - Societa italiana di storia militare

MILITARY LIFE.
nance and hatred by reasoning and arguing with them. This
was the case with the commandants of the corps also, who
were overwhelmed by a thousand needs, encompassed with
as
many difficulties and cares, always in apprehension
for their
troops divided and scattered here and there, and continually in
motion and in danger. A terrible sorrow for all was that of
having to say farewell every day to so many brave soldiers,
good comrades, and dear old friends.
But all
these services, sacrifices, and works of charity, which,
though barely mentioned, are sufficient to arouse in every good
citizen an outburst of grateful recognition, cannot however, as
I have already said, be thoroughly appreciated and praised
unless one knew intimately with how much zeal and in what
way they were performed. This is what I intend to do, and
what matters it if it be not particularly understood by those
who, in the generous actions of the soldiers, are only accustomed
to see and appreciate the immediate and natural effects
of the discipline which commands and castigates, but never
the natural and spontaneous effects of the heart, which that
same discipline educates and softens. It is true, in fact,
that in ordinary times, when the soldier does not comprehend
or see, or sees too far away
in the distance the fruit of
the mite which was asked of him in aid of some public misfortune,
or when he does not understand the absolute necessity
of some other sacrifice, and fancies there is some one else
who can or ought to make it in his stead, the desires or suggestions
of the superiors generally assume, first, the form, the
intention, and therefore the effect of
direct and absolute commands,
so that the merit of
the acts which follow ;
spontaneity cannot be attributed to
but this, for different reasons, could not