Page 2257 - war-and-peace

edging divine intervention in human affairs, want to see the
cause of events in the expression of the will of someone en-
dowed with power, but that supposition is not confirmed
either by reason or by experience.
On the one side reflection shows that the expression of a
man’s willhis wordsare only part of the general activity ex-
pressed in an event, as for instance in a war or a revolution,
and so without assuming an incomprehensible, supernatu-
ral forcea miracleone cannot admit that words can be the
immediate cause of the movements of millions of men. On
the other hand, even if we admitted that words could be
the cause of events, history shows that the expression of the
will of historical personages does not in most cases produce
any effect, that is to say, their commands are often not ex-
ecuted, and sometimes the very opposite of what they order
occurs.
Without admitting divine intervention in the affairs of
humanity we cannot regard ‘power’ as the cause of events.
Power, from the standpoint of experience, is merely the
relation that exists between the expression of someone’s will
and the execution of that will by others.
To explain the conditions of that relationship we must
first establish a conception of the expression of will, refer-
ring it to man and not to the Deity.
If the Deity issues a command, expresses His will, as
ancient history tells us, the expression of that will is indepen-
dent of time and is not caused by anything, for the Divinity
is not controlled by an event. But speaking of commands
that are the expression of the will of men acting in time

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