fire, man for man, than it is able to return. The importance of this difference is greater than might casually be supposed, and, since it contains the kernel of the whole question, it will be examined in detail.
In thus contrasting the ancient conditions with the modern, it is not intended to suggest that the advantages of concentration did not, to some extent, exist under the old order of things. For example, when an army broke and fled, undoubtedly any numerical superiority of the victor could be used with telling effect, and, before this, pressure, as distinct from blows, would exercise great influence. Also the bow and arrow and the cross-bow were weapons that possessed in a lesser degree the
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(a) Fig. 2. (b)
properties of fire-arms, inasmuch as they enabled numbers (within limits) to concentrate their attack on the few. As here discussed, the conditions are contrasted in their most accentuated form as extremes for the purpose of illustration.
Taking, first, the ancient conditions where man is opposed to man, then, assuming the combatants to be of equal fighting value, and other conditions equal, clearly, on an average, as many of the "duels" that go to make up the whole fight will go one way as the other, and there will be about equal numbers killed of the forces engaged; so that if 1,000 men meet 1,000 men, it is of little or no importance whether a "Blue" force of 1,000
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