The principle on which to manage an army is to set up one standard of
courage which all must reach.
Literally, “level the courage [of all] as though [it were that of]
one.” If the ideal army is to form a single organic whole, then it
follows that the resolution and spirit of its component parts
must be of the same quality, or at any rate must not fall below a
certain standard. Wellington’s seemingly ungrateful description of
his army at Waterloo as “the worst he had ever commanded” meant no
more than that it was deficient in this important particular—unity
of spirit and courage. Had he not foreseen the Belgian defections
and carefully kept those troops in the background, he would almost
certainly have lost the day.