This strength does not consist solely in ships and armaments, it
consists also in material ability to utilize such agents. When we
understand that one gun that scores a hundred per cent of hits is a
match for a hundred of the enemy's guns each of which scores only one
per cent, it becomes evident that we sailors must have recourse before
everything to the strength which is over and above externals. The
triumphs recently won by our navy are largely to be attributed to the
habitual training which enabled us to garner the fruits of the fighting.
If, then, we infer the future from the past, we recognize that, though
wars may cease, we cannot abandon ourselves to ease and rest. A
soldier's whole life is one continuous and unceasing battle, and there
is no reason why his responsibilities should vary with the state of the
times. In days of crisis he has to display his strength, in days of
peace to accumulate it, thus perpetually and uniquely discharging his
duties to the full.
If men calling themselves sailors grasp at the pleasures of peace, they
will learn the lesson that, however fine in appearance their engines of
war, those, like a house built on the sand, will fall at the first
approach of the storm.
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