In the description I quoted in the second chapter, showing some of the
types from the vicinity of Tarbes which frequent its horse market, one
may get some idea of the extraordinary differences in the men of a
single small region which is bordered by many little "pockets" wherein
people go on and on, age after age, perpetuating their special traits
without much admixture of other strains.

Not every part of France has so much variety in such small compass.
But every province has its distinctive human qualities. And between
the Norman and the Gascon, the Breton and the Provençal, the man of
Picardy and the man of Languedoc, there are greater temperamental
differences than one can find anywhere else on earth in an equal number
of square miles--except in some of our American cities.

To the commander of General Foch's type (and as we begin to study his
principles we shall, I believe, see that they apply to command in civil
no less than in military life) knowledge of different men's minds and
the way they work is absolutely fundamental to success.

And his preparation for this mastery was remarkably thorough.

At Saumur he learned not only to direct cavalry operations, but to know
the Angevin characteristics.

In each school he attended, beginning with Metz, he had close class
association with men from many provinces, men of many types. And this
was valuable to him in preparing him to command under-officers in whom
a rigorous uniformity of training could not obliterate bred-in-the-bone
differences.