But besides this a great deal is now to be learnt, and many ideas gained from the many excellent military works which are translated into English from other languages. Thirty years ago, beyond Von Schmidt and De Brack (certainly the best of their kind), few foreign works on tactics and the more recent wars had been translated. Nowadays four are translated where one was formerly. These give a better idea of the varied rôle of cavalry on a battlefield; we get a little farther than the drill of a squadron or regiment; we can see laid bare the faults of our cavalry and of their direction in South Africa, or what was noticed by various military attachés as regards the shortcomings of cavalry in the Manchurian or other campaigns. These, read and noted in an intelligent fashion, and more especially if later discussed amongst the officers of a regiment in their application to the work of training a regiment, are of great value. Perhaps their principal value is that they enable officers to lay out plans of action for emergencies, to get what Langlois calls a doctrine.[79] “Without a doctrine,” he says, “text-books are of little avail. Better a doctrine without text-books than text-books without a doctrine, for the former was the case in Napoleon’s time.” And what was Napoleon’s doctrine? Did not Napoleon beyond all others study _moral_ in its application to the training of officers and men, and to the winning of battles? We see it in his selection of his generals. Ney began as a leader of partisan forces. Massena was the head of a band of smugglers. Again, we may note it in the selection of his staff officers and A.D.C.’s of whom he asked (1st): Is he lucky? and (2nd): Is he enterprising? It is evident in his wise distribution of rewards; “I want blood, not ink,” he remarked to a commanding officer who had put forward his quartermaster for a decoration. To another, of whom he had asked the character of a man who was claiming a reward for well-known acts of bravery, when the reply was that the man was a “drunkard and a thief,” he said, “Bah, blood washes all that away.” We see, then, that his _doctrine_ was that the man who will shed his blood is the rarest and most valuable asset in war; and so he, the great leader and organizer of armies, put it before all others, and thus he made it the “fashion.” No doubt Napoleon could have made “ink” the fashion, had he thought it desirable to do so. Further, he decorated men on the field of battle, bearing in mind the maxim: “Bis dat qui cito dat.” Any senior officer may imitate this excellent practice, by putting in his orders, regimental, brigade or otherwise, a notice of an “Act of Courage,” etc. If this is done the same evening it has a great effect.