Page 1471 - war-and-peace

with Russia begun by the will of one man, Napoleon, that
argument seems not merely untrue and irrational, but con-
trary to all human reality. To the question of what causes
historic events another answer presents itself, namely, that
the course of human events is predetermined from on high-
depends on the coincidence of the wills of all who take part
in the events, and that a Napoleon’s influence on the course
of these events is purely external and fictitious.
Strange as at first glance it may seem to suppose that the
Massacre of St. Bartholomew was not due to Charles IX’s
will, though he gave the order for it and thought it was done
as a result of that order; and strange as it may seem to sup-
pose that the slaughter of eighty thousand men at Borodino
was not due to Napoleon’s will, though he ordered the com-
mencement and conduct of the battle and thought it was
done because he ordered it; strange as these suppositions
appear, yet human dignitywhich tells me that each of us is,
if not more at least not less a man than the great Napoleon-
demands the acceptance of that solution of the question,
and historic investigation abundantly confirms it.
At the battle of Borodino Napoleon shot at no one and
killed no one. That was all done by the soldiers. Therefore it
was not he who killed people.
The French soldiers went to kill and be killed at the battle
of Borodino not because of Napoleon’s orders but by their
own volition. The whole armyFrench, Italian, German, Pol-
ish, and Dutchhungry, ragged, and weary of the campaign,
felt at the sight of an army blocking their road to Moscow
that the wine was drawn and must be drunk. Had Napoleon

1471