Essays 0 
not overlook my instructions to you on quitting 
Cassel, and that you will not have tried by human 
succor to recall to life the unfortunates whose days 
could not be lengthened but by the loss of a leg or 
an arm. That would be making them a pernicious 
present, and I am sure they would rather die than 
live in a condition no longer fit for my service. I 
do not mean by this that you should assassinate 
them; we should be humane, my dear Baron, but 
you may insinuate to the surgeons with entire pro- 
priety that a crippled man is a reproach to their 
profession, and that there is no wiser course than 
to let every one of them die when he ceases to be fit 
to fight. 
I am about to send you some new recruits. Don't 
economize them. Remember glory before all things. 
Glory is true wealth. There is nothing degrades 
the soldier like the love of money. He must care 
only for honor and reputation, but this reputation 
must be acquired in the midst of dangers. A battle 
gained without costing the conqueror any blood is 
an inglorious success, while the conquered cover 
themselves with glory by perishing with their arms 
in their hands. Do you remember that of the 300 
Lacedemonians who defended the defile of Ther. 
mopyla, not one returned? How happy should I 
be could I say the same of my brave Hessians! 
It is true that their king, Leonidas, perished with 
them: but things have changed, and it is no longer 
the custom for princes of the empire to go and fight 
in America for a cause with which they have no 
concern. And besides, to whom should they pay 
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