We must return again to this subject, which is touched upon in the
third chapter of the second book, because the moral forces are amongst
the most important subjects in War. They form the spirit which
permeates the whole being of War. These forces fasten themselves
soonest and with the greatest affinity on to the Will which puts in
motion and guides the whole mass of powers, uniting with it as it were
in one stream, because this is a moral force itself. Unfortunately they
will escape from all book-analysis, for they will neither be brought
into numbers nor into classes, and require to be both seen and felt.
The spirit and other moral qualities which animate an Army, a General,
or Governments, public opinion in provinces in which a War is raging,
the moral effect of a victory or of a defeat, are things which in
themselves vary very much in their nature, and which also, according as
they stand with regard to our object and our relations, may have an
influence in different ways.
Although little or nothing can be said about these things in books,
still they belong to the theory of the Art of War, as much as
everything else which constitutes War. For I must here once more repeat
that it is a miserable philosophy if, according to the old plan, we
establish rules and principles wholly regardless of all moral forces,
and then, as soon as these forces make their appearance, we begin to
count exceptions which we thereby establish as it were theoretically,
that is, make into rules; or if we resort to an appeal to genius, which
is above all rules, thus giving out by implication, not only that rules
were only made for fools, but also that they themselves are no better
than folly.
Even if the theory of the Art of War does no more in reality than
recall these things to remembrance, showing the necessity of allowing
to the moral forces their full value, and of always taking them into
consideration, by so doing it extends its borders over the region of
immaterial forces, and by establishing that point of view, condemns
beforehand every one who would endeavour to justify himself before its
judgment seat by the mere physical relations of forces.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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