nt, a point at which, therefore, he must give up the contest.
We see then that this class of means, the wearing out of the enemy,
includes the great number of cases in which the weaker resists the
stronger.

Frederick the Great, during the Seven Years' War, was never strong
enough to overthrow the Austrian monarchy; and if he had tried to do so
after the fashion of Charles the Twelfth, he would inevitably have had
to succumb himself. But after his skilful application of the system
of husbanding his resources had shown the powers allied against him,
through a seven years' struggle, that the actual expenditure of strength
far exceeded what they had at first anticipated, they made peace.

We see then that there are many ways to one's object in War; that the
complete subjugation of the enemy is not essential in every case; that
the destruction of the enemy's military force, the conquest of the
enemy's provinces, the mere occupation of them, the mere invasion of
them--enterprises which are aimed directly at political objects--lastly,
a passive expectation of the enemy's blow, are all means which, each in
itself, may be used to force the enemy's will according as the peculiar
circumstances of the case lead us to expect more from the one or the
other. We could still add to these a whole category of shorter methods
of gaining the end, which might be called arguments ad hominem. What
branch of human affairs is there in which these sparks of individual
spirit have not made their appearance, surmounting all formal
considerations? And least of all can they fail to appear in War, where
the personal character of the combatants plays such an important part,
both in the cabinet and in the field. We limit ourselves to pointing
this out, as it would be pedantry to attempt to reduce such influences
into classes. Including these, we may say that the number of possible
ways of reaching the object rises to infinity.

To avoid under-estimating these different short roads to one's
purpose, either estimating them only as rare exceptions, or holding the
difference which they cause in the conduct of War as insignificant, we
must bear in mind the diversity of political objects which may cause
a War--measure at a glance the distance which there is between a death
struggle for political existence and a War which a forced or tottering
alliance makes a matter of disagreeable duty. Between the two
innumerable gradations occur in practice. If we rejec