s a single frozen limb is easily
revived by the rest of the body, so the courage of a defeated detachment
is easily raised again by the courage of the rest of the Army as soon
as it rejoins it. If, therefore, the effects of a small victory are not
completely done away with, still they are partly lost to the enemy. This
is not the case if the Army itself sustains a great defeat; then one
with the other fall together. A great fire attains quite a different
heat from several small ones.

Another relation which determines the moral value of a victory is the
numerical relation of the forces which have been in conflict with each
other. To beat many with few is not only a double success, but shows
also a greater, especially a more general superiority, which the
conquered must always be fearful of encountering again. At the same time
this influence is in reality hardly observable in such a case. In the
moment of real action, the notions of the actual strength of the
enemy are generally so uncertain, the estimate of our own commonly so
incorrect, that the party superior in numbers either does not admit the
disproportion, or is very far from admitting the full truth, owing to
which, he evades almost entirely the moral disadvantages which would
spring from it. It is only hereafter in history that the truth, long
suppressed through ignorance, vanity, or a wise discretion, makes its
appearance, and then it certainly casts a lustre on the Army and its
Leader, but it can then do nothing more by its moral influence for
events long past.

If prisoners and captured guns are those things by which the victory
principally gains substance, its true crystallisations, then the plan of
the battle should have those things specially in view; the destruction
of the enemy by death and wounds appears here merely as a means to an
end.

How far this may influence the dispositions in the battle is not an
affair of Strategy, but the decision to fight the battle is in intimate
connection with it, as is shown by the direction given to our forces,
and their general grouping, whether we threaten the enemy's flank or
rear, or he threatens ours. On this point, the number of prisoners and
captured guns depends very much, and it is a point which, in many cases,
tactics alone cannot satisfy, particularly if the strategic relations
are too much in opposition to it.

The risk of having to fight on two sides, and the still more dangerous
position of having no