Page 2256 - war-and-peace

What causes historical events? Power. What is pow-
er? Power is the collective will of the people transferred to
one person. Under what condition is the will of the people
delegated to one person? On condition that that person ex-
presses the will of the whole people. That is, power is power:
in other words, power is a word the meaning of which we
do not understand.
If the realm of human knowledge were confined to ab-
stract reasoning, then having subjected to criticism the
explanation of ‘power’ that juridical science gives us, hu-
manity would conclude that power is merely a word and has
no real existence. But to understand phenomena man has,
besides abstract reasoning, experience by which he verifies
his reflections. And experience tells us that power is not
merely a word but an actually existing phenomenon.
Not to speak of the fact that no description of the collec-
tive activity of men can do without the conception of power,
the existence of power is proved both by history and by ob-
serving contemporary events.
Whenever an event occurs a man appears or men appear,
by whose will the event seems to have taken place. Napo-
leon III issues a decree and the French go to Mexico. The
King of Prussia and Bismarck issue decrees and an army
enters Bohemia. Napoleon I issues a decree and an army
enters Russia. Alexander I gives a command and the French
submit to the Bourbons. Experience shows us that whatever
event occurs it is always related to the will of one or of sev-
eral men who have decreed it.
The historians, in accord with the old habit of acknowl-

2256 War and Peace