found, that the vanquished
sinks much further below the original line of equilibrium than the
conqueror raises himself above it; on this account, if we speak of the
effects of victory we allude more particularly to those which manifest
themselves in the army. If this effect is more powerful in an important
combat than in a smaller one, so again it is much more powerful in a
great battle than in a minor one. The great battle takes place for the
sake of itself, for the sake of the victory which it is to give, and
which is sought for with the utmost effort. Here on this spot, in this
very hour, to conquer the enemy is the purpose in which the plan of the
War with all its threads converges, in which all distant hopes, all
dim glimmerings of the future meet, fate steps in before us to give an
answer to the bold question.--This is the state of mental tension
not only of the Commander but of his whole Army down to the lowest
waggon-driver, no doubt in decreasing strength but also in decreasing
importance.

According to the nature of the thing, a great battle has never at any
time been an unprepared, unexpected, blind routine service, but a grand
act, which, partly of itself and partly from the aim of the Commander,
stands out from amongst the mass of ordinary efforts, sufficiently to
raise the tension of all minds to a higher degree. But the higher this
tension with respect to the issue, the more powerful must be the effect
of that issue.

Again, the moral effect of victory in our battles is greater than it was
in the earlier ones of modern military history. If the former are as we
have depicted them, a real struggle of forces to the utmost, then the
sum total of all these forces, of the physical as well as the moral,
must decide more than certain special dispositions or mere chance.

A single fault committed may be repaired next time; from good fortune
and chance we can hope for more favour on another occasion; but the sum
total of moral and physical powers cannot be so quickly altered, and,
therefore, what the award of a victory has decided appears of much
greater importance for all futurity. Very probably, of all concerned in
battles, whether in or out of the Army, very few have given a thought
to this difference, but the course of the battle itself impresses on the
minds of all present in it such a conviction, and the relation of this
course in public documents, however much it may be coloured by twisting
particular cir