mself to be used for the first Chapter of the
second Book: the projected revision of that chapter not having been
made, the passages referred to are introduced here in full.

By the mere assemblage of armed forces at a particular point, a
battle there becomes possible, but does not always take place. Is that
possibility now to be regarded as a reality and therefore an effective
thing? Certainly, it is so by its results, and these effects, whatever
they may be, can never fail.

1. POSSIBLE COMBATS ARE ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR RESULTS TO BE LOOKED UPON AS
REAL ONES.

If a detachment is sent away to cut off the retreat of a flying enemy,
and the enemy surrenders in consequence without further resistance,
still it is through the combat which is offered to him by this
detachment sent after him that he is brought to his decision.

If a part of our Army occupies an enemy's province which was undefended,
and thus deprives the enemy of very considerable means of keeping up
the strength of his Army, it is entirely through the battle which our
detached body gives the enemy to expect, in case he seeks to recover the
lost province, that we remain in possession of the same.

In both cases, therefore, the mere possibility of a battle has produced
results, and is therefore to be classed amongst actual events. Suppose
that in these cases the enemy has opposed our troops with others
superior in force, and thus forced ours to give up their object without
a combat, then certainly our plan has failed, but the battle which we
offered at (either of) those points has not on that account been without
effect, for it attracted the enemy's forces to that point. And in case
our whole undertaking has done us harm, it cannot be said that these
positions, these possible battles, have been attended with no results;
their effects, then, are similar to those of a lost battle.

In this manner we see that the destruction of the enemy's military
forces, the overthrow of the enemy's power, is only to be done through
the effect of a battle, whether it be that it actually takes place, or
that it is merely offered, and not accepted.

2. TWOFOLD OBJECT OF THE COMBAT.

But these effects are of two kinds, direct and indirect they are of the
latter, if other things intrude themselves and become the object of the
combat--things which cannot be regarded as the destruction of enemy's
force, but only leading up to it, certainly by a circuitous road, but
with