"What do I mean by a professional soldier? I mean one who has been thoroughly trained in the school of military discipline. And what is military discipline? In its essence I must repeat that it is the organized abnegation of self, the organized sacrifice of the individual for the corporate welfare. Its object is to make hundreds of thousands act under the guidance of a single will; its leading principle is immediate and unquestioning obedience to superior command. In a way it is hard, for it enjoins that it is better for injustice to be done to the individual than that an order should be disobeyed. In a way it is narrowing, and may undoubtedly be injurious to character; for it treats the formula 'Orders must be obeyed' as a sufficient answer to any reasoning. It may be turned to evil account, for, as the Prayer Book teaches us, there was never any thing by the wit of man so well devised, or so sure established, which in continuance of time hath not been corrupted.' On the other hand it it may be both strengthening and ennobling; for self-sacrifice is no mean ideal to set before a man; and, if the drill-sergeant cannot always impart self-reverence and self-knowledge, he can at least enforce self-control. And the outstanding mark of a man who has been educated, not merely in intellect but in character, is self-control."