P R E F A C E .

hardly notice the great difference that exists between one and the other. We will not amuse ourselves here by pointing out the disparity, because it will be very easy for anyone who wants to take the trouble to compare a few articles taken at random to notice that the author of these observations is infinitely far from having copied Mr. de Quincy. It will suffice to say that this treatise is less a commentary or an amplification of The Art of War, than a true supplement, in which one finds an infinity of things that Mr. de Quincy did not even touch upon, and even several whose utility is enhanced by the appeal of novelty.

TO make this work more reliable to use, and to relieve those who wish to consult it, we have placed at the end of this second volume a comprehensive Table of Contents, arranged in alphabetical order.

Furthermore, as everything that comes from the hand of Mr. de Vauban is excellent, even down to the smallest fragments, we will finish this preface with a short Discourse by this great General on The Utility of Fortified Places. It was found at the beginning of a very beautiful manuscript of The Attack and Defense of Places, which the bookseller recently acquired. Besides several other marks of authenticity, this manuscript is dedicated by Mr. de Vauban to the Duke of Burgundy: but as the dedication con-