Posterity will compare the serene simplicity of Peguy
and Lintier with the restlessness and bitter disenchantment of the
1880 generation, which arrived at manhood just when France was most
deeply conscious of her humiliation. If we seek for the sources of
this recovery of self-respect, which so beautifully characterized
French character at the immediate crisis of 1914, we have to find it,
of course, in the essential elasticity of the trained French mind. The
Frenchman likes the heroic attitude, which is unwelcome to us, and he
adopts it instinctively, with none of our national shyness and false
modesty. But, if we seek for a starting-point of influence, we may
probably find it in the writings of a soldier whose name is scarcely
known in England, but whose "Etudes sur le Combat," first published in
1880, have been the text-book of the young French officer, and were
never being so much read as just before the outbreak of the war.
The author of these "Etudes sur le Combat" was Colonel Ardent du Picq,
who fell at the battle of Longeville-les-Metz, on August 15, 1870. He
had predicted the calamity of that war, which he attributed to the
mental decadence of the French army, and to the absence of any
adequate General Staff organization.
Pages:
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195