He received
also instructions in his field duty; but, I must own, that when
his first ardour was passed, his progress fell short in the latter
particular of what he wished and expected. The duty of an officer,
the most imposing of all others to the inexperienced mind, because
accompanied with so much outward pomp and circumstance, is in
its essence a very dry and abstract task, depending chiefly upon
arithmetical combinations, requiring much attention, and a cool and
reasoning head, to bring them into action. Our hero was liable to fits
of absence, in which his blunders excited some mirth, and called down
some reproof. This circumstance impressed him with a painful sense of
inferiority in those qualities which appeared most to deserve and obtain
regard in his new profession. He asked himself in vain, why his eye
could not judge of distance or space so well as those of his companions;
why his head was not always successful in disentangling the various
partial movements necessary to execute a particular evolution; and
why his memory, so alert upon most occasions, did not correctly retain
technical phrases, and minute points of etiquette or field discipline.
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