The moral effects which
attend a surprise often convert the worst case into a good one for
the side they favour, and do not allow the other to make any regular
determination. We have here in view more than anywhere else not only the
chief Commander, but each single one, because a surprise has the effect
in particular of greatly loosening unity, so that the individuality of
each separate leader easily comes to light.

Much depends here on the general relation in which the two parties stand
to each other. If the one side through a general moral superiority can
intimidate and outdo the other, then he can make use of the surprise
with more success, and even reap good fruit where properly he should
come to ruin.

CHAPTER X. STRATAGEM

STRATAGEM implies a concealed intention, and therefore is opposed to
straightforward dealing, in the same way as wit is the opposite
of direct proof. It has therefore nothing in common with means of
persuasion, of self-interest, of force, but a great deal to do with
deceit, because that likewise conceals its object. It is itself a deceit
as well when it is done, but still it differs from what is commonly
called deceit, in this respect that there is no direct breach of word.
The deceiver by stratagem leaves it to the person himself whom he is
deceiving to commit the errors of understanding which at last, flowing
into ONE result, suddenly change the nature of things in his eyes.
We may therefore say, as nit is a sleight of hand with ideas and
conceptions, so stratagem is a sleight of hand with actions.

At first sight it appears as if Strategy had not improperly derived its
name from stratagem; and that, with all the real and apparent changes
which the whole character of War has undergone since the time of the
Greeks, this term still points to its real nature.

If we leave to tactics the actual delivery of the blow, the battle
itself, and look upon Strategy as the art of using this means with
skill, then besides the forces of the character, such as burning
ambition which always presses like a spring, a strong will which hardly
bends &c. &c., there seems no subjective quality so suited to guide
and inspire strategic activity as stratagem. The general tendency
to surprise, treated of in the foregoing chapter, points to this
conclusion, for there is a degree of stratagem, be it ever so small,
which lies at the foundation of every attempt to surprise.

But however much we feel a desire to