Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/183

that the people should perish, or that the Prince should break the treaty he has made. And what man would be so stupid as to hesitate in deciding the question?' … 'If war could fix securely the frontiers of States, and maintain that balance of power which is so necessary for the Sovereigns of Europe, we might regard those who have fallen in war as sacrifices to the public tranquillity and safety.' Reason prescribes a rule from which no statesman should depart: he should seize occasion, and when it is favourable embark on his enterprise. 'La Politique demande de la patience, et le chef-d'œuvre d'un homme habile est de faire chaque chose en son temps et à propos.'^[1]

(b) Clausewitz (1780–1834), On War.^[2]

Allies in relation to 'the extent of the means of defence':

'We may further reckon allies as the last support of the defensive. Naturally we do not mean ordinary allies, which the assailant may likewise have; we speak of those essentially interested in maintaining the integrity of the country. If for instance we look at the various states composing Europe at the present time, we find (without speaking of a systematically regulated balance of power and interests, as that does not exist, and is often with justice disputed, still, unquestionably) that the great and small states and interests of nations are interwoven with each other in a most diversified and changeable manner; each of these points of intersection forms a binding knot, for in it the direction of the one gives equilibrium to the direction of the other; by all these knots, therefore, evidently a more or less compact connection of the whole will

1. L'Histoire de mon Temps: Avant-Propos. Applications of Frederick's precepts abound in his writings: see, e.g., the beginning of ch. iv of the History.
2. Translated from the third German edition, by Colonel J. J. Graham, 3 vols. in one, 1873. For the connexion of Clausewitz with Scharnhorst and Stein, see Seeley's Stein.