e most favourable turn for them, they could not have reconquered.
But the French could not have reckoned on even the moderate treaty
of Campo Formio, and therefore it could not have been their object
in making their bold advance if two considerations had not presented
themselves to their view, the first of which consisted in the question,
what degree of value the Austrians would attach to each of the
above-mentioned results; whether, notwithstanding the probability of a
satisfactory result in either of these cases, would it be worth while to
make the sacrifices inseparable from a continuance of the War, when
they could be spared those sacrifices by a peace on terms not too
humiliating? The second consideration is the question whether the
Austrian Government, instead of seriously weighing the possible results
of a resistance pushed to extremities, would not prove completely
disheartened by the impression of their present reverses.

The consideration which forms the subject of the first is no idle piece
of subtle argument, but a consideration of such decidedly practical
importance that it comes up whenever the plan of pushing War to the
utmost extremity is mooted, and by its weight in most cases restrains
the execution of such plans.

The second consideration is of equal importance, for we do not make War
with an abstraction but with a reality, which we must always keep
in view, and we may be sure that it was not overlooked by the bold
Buonaparte--that is, that he was keenly alive to the terror which the
appearance of his sword inspired. It was reliance on that which led him
to Moscow. There it led him into a scrape. The terror of him had been
weakened by the gigantic struggles in which he had been engaged; in the
year 1797 it was still fresh, and the secret of a resistance pushed
to extremities had not been discovered; nevertheless even in 1797 his
boldness might have led to a negative result if, as already said, he had
not with a sort of presentiment avoided it by signing the moderate peace
of Campo Formio.

We must now bring these considerations to a close--they will suffice
to show the wide sphere, the diversity and embarrassing nature of the
subjects embraced in a critical examination carried to the fullest
extent, that is, to those measures of a great and decisive class which
must necessarily be included. It follows from them that besides a
theoretical acquaintance with the subject, natural talent must also have