Only by employing his leisure in reflection upon the events of the Past can one get to understand those things which make for success in Warfare and in Chessplay, and develop that all-essential ability to detect equivalents in any situation. For in action there is no time for such reflection, much less for development. Then, moments of value inestimable for the achieving of results are not to be wasted in the weighing and comparison of things, whose relative importance should be discerned in the twinkling of an eye, by reason of prior familiarity with similar conditions. The relative advantage in time possessed by one army over an opposing army always can be determined by the following, viz.: RULE 1. _That army which is in motion while the opposing army must remain stationary has the absolute advantage in Time._ 2. _That army which although at rest can dictate the movement of an opposing army in motion has the conditioned advantage in Time, i.e., the Initiative._ * * * * * _“One may lose more by letting slip a decisive opportunity than afterwards can be gained by ten battles.”--Gustavus Adolphus._ _“It is the exact moment that must be seized; one minute too soon or too late and the movement is utterly futile.”--Napoleon._ MILITARY EXAMPLES _“The movements of an army should be characterized by decision and rapidity.”--Hannibal._ * * * * * _“In order to escape from a dilemma it first of all is necessary to gain Time.”--Napoleon._ Thebes having revolted, Alexander the Great marched 400 miles in fourteen days; attacked and captured the city and razed it to the ground (335 B.C.) sparing only the house and family of Pindar, the poet; massacred all males capable of bearing arms and sold 30,000 women and children into slavery. * * * * * To gain time to occupy the Strategic center and to cut the communications with Rome of the army of the Consul Flaminius, Hannibal marched his army for three days and nights through the marshes of the Po. * * * * * Caesar marched from Rome to Sierra-Modena in Spain, a distance of 1350 miles in twenty-three days. * * * * * Frederic the Great in order to gain time usually marched at midnight. * * * * *