The Spectator at war: Marching orders

From ‘The Psychology of Drill’, The Spectator, 20 February 1915:

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Simon Cook

Pensioners have never had it so good

One is tempted to divide all men under drill into two classes—the precipitate and the tardy. Every one who has listened to a drill instructor’s words knows that the first part of a command is cautionary. For instance, in “Right—turn” there is a pause between the two words, and the movement to the right takes place on the word “turn.” Some men cannot prevent themselves from moving at the word “right” Others are late on the second word. Surely this tendency must correspond to some constitutional temperament or innate mental quality. Shall we call the early movers impatient men and the late ones lethargic or slow-witted? Or shall we be as fanciful as Ringlake, and say that here, expressed in involuntary muscular action, is the difference between the man of impulse and the man of meditative habit, or between the realist and the idealist, or even between the Aristotelian and the Platonist? The drill instructor, we fancy, prefers the late to the early movers, just as a doctor feels more sure of curing a mild surgical case than a nervous disease.