The Science of War - A Collection of Essays and Lectures, 1891-1903 #234205

For some years before his death it had been Colonel Henderson's intention to make a collection of his occasional papers and to publish them, in book form, in the hope that they might be of service to the profession he loved so well. Unfortunately, he never found time to carry this intention into effect; and consequently, in the absence of the master hand, the duty of selection has been entrusted to me. In the years covered by these pages, 1891 — 1903, the world learned much of war. It is therefore probable that something of what was written in 1891 would not have been written in 1903; it is even possible that, in some respects, the war in the Far East would have affected the opinions formed in South Africa. Nevertheless, I have found so much food for reflection in each one of these papers that I have not hesitated to include even the very earliest of them; for in these earlier writings is to be found the germ, at least, of nearly all the military thought of to-day. Similarly the text-books referred to are not those now in use. For unless tactical text-books were constantly to change, they would soon cease to be of any value whatever. The im portance of these books as the foundation, but the foundation only, of a military education is as great now as ever it was.