Alexander : a history of the origin and growth of the art of war from ...

XPREFACE.other great captains and elucidated by their commentators,was, even to Arrian, a sealed book. Arrian did not understandwhat Alexander did as Jomini would have understoodit; for it needed the remarkable campaigns of a Frederickand a Napoleon to enable Jomini to compass the inner meaningof the art of war. This meaning we must seek in modernmilitary criticism.There is by no means a perfectsequence to the origin andgrowth of the art of war. Its continuity has been interruptedby periods of many centuries. But as all great soldiershave acknowledged their indebtedness to their predecessors,though they themselves have been able to improve uponthe art, so it is interesting and instructive to study what thesepredecessors did, and see from what small beginnings andthrough how many fluctuations the art has grown to its presentperfect state.There have been many lives of Alexander written in moderntimes, some within this generation. Much of the best ofmilitary criticism has been devoted to this subject. It ishard to say anything about Alexander that some one may notalready have said. But a good deal contained in this volumein the way ofcomment is new, and the author does not knowof a life of Alexander, which, by the use of such charts andmaps as abound in the histories of our own Civil War, makesthe perusal of his great conquests an easy task. The militarystudent is willing to devote his days to research ; heshould not rely on others ; the general reader has no leisurefor such work. He has a right to demand that his wayshould be made plain.The author has tried to do just this,while not neglecting the requirements of those who wish todwell upon the military aspect of Alexander's campaigns.There is no mystery about the methods of great captains.A hundred years ago there was ; but Jomini and his follow-