A few words in conclusion. We hear it said, and see it written, that we ought not to accept any guidance from military Europe, because our own experience of war has been so considerable that we can learn nothing from Europe which we do not know better ourselves. The truth is, that since the Crimean War we have had little or no experience of the kind of effort which will be required of us when next we meet the trained army of a European Power. In deluding ourselves with the false notion that our campaigns of the last fifty years represent the sum of military wisdom, we merely expose our ignorance and conceit, and do our utmost not only to cause disaster, but to invite it.
The cavalry soldier must not be misled by these appeals of ignorance to vanity. Let him continue to study profoundly the training, tactics, and organisation of the best foreign cavalry. Let him reflect long and deeply upon the opinions of such acknowledged authorities as Field-Marshal Sir Evelyn Wood and General von Bernhardi. Let him keep himself abreast with every change in the tendencies of cavalry abroad, so that he may help us to assimilate the best of foreign customs to our own. Finally, let him realise the great intellectual and physical strain that modern war will impose upon the cavalry, and let him preserve the _mens sana in corpore sano_, that equable balance between study and action, which alone will enable him to rise superior to every difficulty in the great and honourable calling to which he belongs.
_In placing this translation of General von Bernhardi's work at the service of the officers of the Army, I take the opportunity of drawing attention to the educational value of the large quantity of military literature published abroad, particularly in France and Germany. Translations into English of works of this kind are rare, and often so belated as to have lost much of their value by the time they are produced._
_Modern developments in means of communication and intercourse are daily bringing us into closer touch with the Continent of Europe, and there can be no doubt that the rising generation of officers would do well to make themselves masters of the not over-difficult art of reading French and German, that they may be able to appreciate such works and keep themselves abreast of the times. They will find such knowledge of the greatest service, not only in the profession of arms, but in the course of everyday life._