For each station, from the lowest upwards, to render distinguished
services in War, there must be a particular genius. But the title of
genius, history and the judgment of posterity only confer, in general,
on those minds which have shone in the highest rank, that of
Commanders-in-Chief. The reason is that here, in point of fact, the
demand on the reasoning and intellectual powers generally is much
greater.
To conduct a whole War, or its great acts, which we call campaigns, to
a successful termination, there must be an intimate knowledge of State
policy in its higher relations. The conduct of the War and the policy
of the State here coincide, and the General becomes at the same time
the Statesman.
We do not give Charles XII. the name of a great genius, because he
could not make the power of his sword subservient to a higher judgment
and philosophy—could not attain by it to a glorious object. We do not
give that title to Henry IV. (of France), because he did not live long
enough to set at rest the relations of different States by his military
activity, and to occupy himself in that higher field where noble
feelings and a chivalrous disposition have less to do in mastering the
enemy than in overcoming internal dissension.
In order that the reader may appreciate all that must be comprehended
and judged of correctly at a glance by a General, we refer to the first
chapter. We say the General becomes a Statesman, but he must not cease
to be the General. He takes into view all the relations of the State on
the one hand; on the other, he must know exactly what he can do with
the means at his disposal.
As the diversity, and undefined limits, of all the circumstances bring
a great number of factors into consideration in War, as the most of
these factors can only be estimated according to probability,
therefore, if the Chief of an Army does not bring to bear upon them a
mind with an intuitive perception of the truth, a confusion of ideas
and views must take place, in the midst of which the judgment will
become bewildered. In this sense, Buonaparte was right when he said
that many of the questions which come before a General for decision
would make problems for a mathematical calculation not unworthy of the
powers of Newton or Euler.
What is here required from the higher powers of the mind is a sense of
unity, and a judgment raised to such a compass as to give the mind an
extraordinary faculty of vision which in its range allays and sets
aside a thousand dim notions which an ordinary understanding could only
bring to light with great effort, and over which it would exhaust
itself. But this higher activity of the mind, this glance of genius,
would still not become matter of history if the qualities of
temperament and character of which we have treated did not give it
their support.
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