Valor belongs to the young soldier as well as to the veteran; but in
the former it is more evanescent. It is only by habits of service, and
after several campaigns, that the soldier acquires that moral courage
which makes him support the fatigues and privations of war without a
murmur. Experience by this time has instructed him to supply his own
wants. He is satisfied with what he can procure, because he knows that
success is only to be obtained by fortitude and perseverance. Well
might Napoleon say that misery and want were the best school for a
soldier; for as nothing could be compared with the total destitution
of the army of the Alps, when he assumed the command, so nothing
could equal the brilliant success which he obtained with this army
in the first campaign in Italy. The conquerors of Montenotte, Lodi,
Castiglione, Bassano, Arcole and Rivoli had beheld, only a few months
before, whole battalions covered with rags, and deserting for the want
of subsistence.