schemes and views, absorbing the activity of the Army,
the really necessary means, which could alone save, were lost sight of.

But this speculative distinction which we have made is also necessary
for our further progress in the construction of our theory, because all
that we have to say on the relation of attack and defence, and on the
completion of this double-sided act, concerns the state of the crisis in
which the forces are placed during the tension and motion, and
because all the activity which can take place during the condition of
equilibrium can only be regarded and treated as a corollary; for
that crisis is the real War and this state of equilibrium only its
reflection.

BOOK IV THE COMBAT

CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY

HAVING in the foregoing book examined the subjects which may be regarded
as the efficient elements of War, we shall now turn our attention to the
combat as the real activity in Warfare, which, by its physical and moral
effects, embraces sometimes more simply, sometimes in a more complex
manner, the object of the whole campaign. In this activity and in its
effects these elements must therefore, reappear.

The formation of the combat is tactical in its nature; we only glance
at it here in a general way in order to get acquainted with it in its
aspect as a whole. In practice the minor or more immediate objects give
every combat a characteristic form; these minor objects we shall not
discuss until hereafter. But these peculiarities are in comparison to
the general characteristics of a combat mostly only insignificant, so
that most combats are very like one another, and, therefore, in order to
avoid repeating that which is general at every stage, we are compelled
to look into it here, before taking up the subject of its more special
application.

In the first place, therefore, we shall give in the next chapter, in
a few words, the characteristics of the modern battle in its tactical
course, because that lies at the foundation of our conceptions of what
the battle really is.

CHAPTER II. CHARACTER OF THE MODERN BATTLE

ACCORDING to the notion we have formed of tactics and strategy, it
follows, as a matter of course, that if the nature of the former is
changed, that change must have an influence on the latter. If tactical
facts in one case are entirely different from those in another, then
the strategic, must be so also, if they are to continue consistent and
reasonable. It is theref