ars or campaigns are to be given out all ready made as if from a
machine are absolutely worthless.

As long as there exists no theory which can be sustained, that is, no
enlightened treatise on the conduct of War, method in action cannot but
encroach beyond its proper limits in high places, for men employed
in these spheres of activity have not always had the opportunity of
educating themselves, through study and through contact with the higher
interests. In the impracticable and inconsistent disquisitions of
theorists and critics they cannot find their way, their sound common
sense rejects them, and as they bring with them no knowledge but that
derived from experience, therefore in those cases which admit of, and
require, a free individual treatment they readily make use of the means
which experience gives them--that is, an imitation of the particular
methods practised by great Generals, by which a method of action then
arises of itself. If we see Frederick the Great's Generals always making
their appearance in the so-called oblique order of battle, the Generals
of the French Revolution always using turning movements with a long,
extended line of battle, and Buonaparte's lieutenants rushing to the
attack with the bloody energy of concentrated masses, then we recognise
in the recurrence of the mode of proceeding evidently an adopted
method, and see therefore that method of action can reach up to regions
bordering on the highest. Should an improved theory facilitate the study
of the conduct of War, form the mind and judgment of men who are rising
to the highest commands, then also method in action will no longer reach
so far, and so much of it as is to be considered indispensable will then
at least be formed from theory itself, and not take place out of mere
imitation. However pre-eminently a great Commander does things, there
is always something subjective in the way he does them; and if he has
a certain manner, a large share of his individuality is contained in it
which does not always accord with the individuality of the person who
copies his manner.

At the same time, it would neither be possible nor right to banish
subjective methodicism or manner completely from the conduct of War: it
is rather to be regarded as a manifestation of that influence which the
general character of a War has upon its separate events, and to which
satisfaction can only be done in that way if theory is not able to
foresee this general cha