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160 ANCIENT GREECE. [CHAP, MI.On the other hand, we ask leave, so far as one who liasnot been initiated into the art of war may venture his opinions, to offer some remarks respecting the progress madethe Greeks in the art which relates to the positions andbyevolutions of armies, all which we comprehend under theword tactics. We the more desire to do this, because itwill afford us a favourable opportunity of expressing an opinion on some of their most distinguished generals.It canwith truth be said, that the art of tactics is in some respectsindependent of the progress of the other branches of military science; and in others isnecessarily dependent onthem. It is independent, so far as we speak of taking advantage of situation and the ground The leader of ahorde savagemay profit by his position, no less than the commander of the best-disciplined army. Each will do it in hisown way. It is an affair of genius, and rules cannot begiven on the subject. He can do it, to whom nature hasgiven the necessary keenness and quickness of view. Thisart is therefore always the property of individuals ;it cannot be propagated or preserved by instructions.Entirelythe reverse is true of the drawing up of an army and theevolutions dependent thereupon. They rest upon rules andknowledge; which arc lasting j though we readily concedethat this is but as it were the inanimate body of the art,into which genius must breathe life. Modern history hasshown by a great example, how those forms may continuein the most courageous and best-disciplined army, and yetproduce no effect when the spirit of them has passed away,But here a subject is proposed to the historian, of which hecan treat Can this be done better than by comparing together several of the principal engagements, of whichdetailed accounts have been preserved? Inferences whichmay thus be drawn respecting the progress of tactics, canhardly be exposed to any considerable errors.In the Persian wars, the victory of Marathon was the firstsplendid military action of the Greeks, or rather of theAthenians. Athens owed it to the heroic spirit of herMiltiades. It was he who turned the scale, when it wasstill a question, whether a battle should be ventured or not.The voices of the ten leaders, of whom Miltiades was one,were divided ;the eleventh vote of the Polemarch was to