have to be neglected until the main issue was
decided, and if these purposes were of any moment he would have so far
to pay the penalty of his neglect. Nothing is more fatal in warfare than
to attempt to be equally strong everywhere. If you cannot do everything
you desire at once you must concentrate all your energies on doing the
most important and the most vital things first. When the tree is cut
down the branches will fall of themselves. The history of the War of
American Independence is full of illustrations of the neglect of this
paramount principle. England was worsted much more by faulty
distribution than by insufficiency of force.

At the same time it must be observed that the outlying and subsidiary
purposes of the conflict cannot be of vital moment so long as the
superior belligerent is at firm grips with the central forces of his
adversary. We are dealing with the assumption that of two belligerents
one is so far superior to the other that he may entertain a reasonable
confidence of being able to deny the command of the sea to his adversary
and in the end to secure it for himself. It is an essential part of this
assumption that the forces of the superior belligerent will be so
disposed as to make it exceedingly difficult and, subject to the fortune
of war, practically impossible for any considerable portion of the
enemy's forces to act on a vigorous offensive without being speedily
brought to book by a superior force of his adversary, and that the peace
strategy of the latter will have been ordered to that end. So long as
this is the case the virtual command of the sea will be in the hands of
the superior belligerent, even though his forces may be so concentrated,
in accordance with the dispositions of the enemy, as to leave many
regions of the sea apparently unguarded. They are adequately guarded by
the fact that the enemy is _ex hypothesi_ unable to reach them--or if by
a successful evasion of his adversary's guard he manages to send a
detachment, large or small, to aim at some outlying objective, the
initial superiority of force possessed by his adversary will always
enable the latter to send a superior force in pursuit of the fugitive.
Much harm may be done before the fugitive is brought to book, but no
State, however strong, need ever expect to go to war without running
risks and suffering occasional and partial reverses.

It is thus a pure delusion to assume, as loose thinkers on the subject
too often