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What a common soldier may lose is obvious enough. Without

regarding the danger, however, young volunteers never enlist so

readily as at the beginning of a new war; and though they have

scarce any chance of preferment, they figure to themselves, in

their youthful fancies, a thousand occasions of acquiring honour

and distinction which never occur. These romantic hopes make the

whole price of their blood. Their pay is less than that of common

labourers, and, in actual service, their fatigues are much

greater.