the beam turns on an iron pin with little friction.
But it is not so in reality, and all that is exaggerated and false in
such a conception manifests itself at once in War. The battalion always
remains composed of a number of men, of whom, if chance so wills, the
most insignificant is able to occasion delay and even irregularity. The
danger which War brings with it, the bodily exertions which it requires,
augment this evil so much that they may be regarded as the greatest
causes of it.

This enormous friction, which is not concentrated, as in mechanics, at
a few points, is therefore everywhere brought into contact with chance,
and thus incidents take place upon which it was impossible to calculate,
their chief origin being chance. As an instance of one such chance: the
weather. Here the fog prevents the enemy from being discovered in time,
a battery from firing at the right moment, a report from reaching the
General; there the rain prevents a battalion from arriving at the right
time, because instead of for three it had to march perhaps eight hours;
the cavalry from charging effectively because it is stuck fast in heavy
ground.

These are only a few incidents of detail by way of elucidation, that
the reader may be able to follow the author, for whole volumes might be
written on these difficulties. To avoid this, and still to give a clear
conception of the host of small difficulties to be contended with in
War, we might go on heaping up illustrations, if we were not afraid of
being tiresome. But those who have already comprehended us will permit
us to add a few more.

Activity in War is movement in a resistant medium. Just as a man
immersed in water is unable to perform with ease and regularity the most
natural and simplest movement, that of walking, so in War, with ordinary
powers, one cannot keep even the line of mediocrity. This is the reason
that the correct theorist is like a swimming master, who teaches on
dry land movements which are required in the water, which must appear
grotesque and ludicrous to those who forget about the water. This is
also why theorists, who have never plunged in themselves, or who cannot
deduce any generalities from their experience, are unpractical and even
absurd, because they only teach what every one knows--how to walk.

Further, every War is rich in particular facts, while at the same time
each is an unexplored sea, full of rocks which the General may have a
suspicion of, but whi