SECT. IV.

OF THE PINCIPLES OF DISCIPLINE.

l. The mind must be prepared before it can receive.

2. The mind acts with the greatest vigour, when confined to a particular object.

3. Every officer must have his post assigned or declared.

4. Every officer must be posted where he can be most serviceable.

5. Every confinement is a restriction.

6. Every officer is to be in a capacity to inspect, direct, and see things done.

7. Where things are not distinct in themselves, there will always be confusion.

8. Nothing is military which is in itself either tedious or inconvenient.

9. Every object operates best, which is least obstructed or incommoded.

l0. Whatever is constrained is irksome and ungraceful.

ll. Strength suffers by constraint.

l2. That position is best in which a man can most conveniently defend himself and annoy his enemy.

l3. That disposition is best, where each part sustains the other.

l4. He suffers most, who is most exposed.

l5. The more compact any body is in itself, the more impenetrable is becomes.

l6. The more simple and comprehensive any operation is, the better effect it will produce. [258]

l7. The less complelx any operation is, the sooner it will be learned and the more accurate will be the performance of it.

l8. Every operation receives a merit from its conciseness; every action should have a motive, and none to precede command.

l9. The less the space, whether of time or distance, the more accurate will be the judgment of it.

20. Every object stands the weaker, by how much its base is less than its greatest diameter.

2l. The more any object is supported, the firmer it rests.

22. No independent object can sustain itself out of the line of gravity.

23. No dependent object can sustain itself.

24. All objects tend to a perpendicular bearing

25. Whatever is perpendicular can only rest upon its own base.

26. The nearer any object approaches to a perpendicular, the more it rests upon its own base.

27. All objects placed in the same line of direction from the point of view, hide or cover each other.

28. If an object is so placed as to be in a line with two others, the whole will then be in one and the same direction.

29. The nearer that the side of any polygon is to the centre of that figure, the less will that side be.

30. Every figure which carries in its lines its own measurement with it, will be soonest described, and least liable to error.

3l. The sooner any figure can be described, the more convenient it becomes.

32. Figures are only useful by their application.

33. If right lines are not parallel, they will either converge or diverge.

34. The shorter any radius is, the sooner its circle will be described.

35. There can be no balance where there is not a counteracting power.

36. The longer any lever is, the greater its power.

37. The nearer any power approaches the fulcrum of a lever, the more is its force diminished.

38. Every fulcrum sustains the whole force of motion contained in each arm of its lever.

39. The force of motikon in the arm of any lever is compounded of its length and the quantity of matter acting upon it.

40. The force of motion is proportioned to its velocity in the same body.