HENRY W. TORRENS, ESQ., B. A., BENGAL CIVIL SERVICE, AND OF THE INNER TEMPLE; WITH A BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR. BY JAMES HUME, ESQ., OF THE INNER TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. VOL. II. Calcutta: R. C. LEPAGE AND CO., BRITISH LIBRARY. London: R. C. LEPAGE & CO., WHITEFRIARS ST. FLEET STREET. 1854. Passages FROM "REMARKS ON THE SCOPE AND USES OF MILITARY LITERATURE AND HISTORY." THE SCIENCE of War, as we understand it, is perhaps with that of Astronomy, the first that possessed a Literature. It was of course an oral one in the first instance; but in this shape it must have existed long before the use of letters permitted any written record to be made of it, at least which has come down to our day. In the oldest book extant, however, that of Job, we have evidence of military divisions, of military arrangements, of the use of instruments of music in war to encourage or command, of the authority of appointed chiefs, and of the use of defensive armour, nay-even of cavalry, a point of much interest as will be shown hereafter. The Chaldeans, we find "made out three bands (Job i. 17.) and fell upon the camels," showing that their predatory attack was not unaccompanied by a show of rude discipline. Job again himself in his nobly figurative language complains of the Almighty that, "His troops (Job xix. 12.) come together, and raise up their way against me,† and encamp round about my tabernacle." In the description of the ostrich, (Job xxxix. 18.) it is said, "she scorneth the horse and his rider," showing that horses had already been trained to the chase (as with the modern Arabs) * Or "rushed," a more military term. †The writer does not pretend to understand this: it is most likely a military term mistranslated. VOL. II. A |