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• Introduction
• Preface to the First Edition
• Notice
• Introduction of the Author
• Brief Memoir of General Clausewitz
• Book I: On the Nature of War
• Chapter I: What Is War?
• Chapter II: End and Means In War
• Chapter III: The Genius For War
• Chapter IV: Of Danger In War
• Chapter V: Of Bodily Exertion In War
• Chapter VI: Information In War
• Chapter VII: Friction In War
• Chapter VIII: Concluding Remarks, Book I
• Book II: On the Theory of War
• Chapter I: Branches of the Art of War
• Chapter II: On the Theory of War
• Chapter III: Art Or Science of War
• Chapter IV: Methodicism
• Chapter V: Criticism
• Chapter VI: On Examples
• Book III: Of Strategy In General
• Chapter I: Strategy
• Chapter II: Elements of Strategy
• Chapter III: Moral Forces
• Chapter IV: The Chief Moral Powers
• Chapter V: Military Virtue of an Army
• Chapter VI: Boldness
• Chapter VII: Perseverance
• Chapter VIII: Superiority of Numbers
• Chapter IX: The Surprise
• Chapter X: Stratagem
• Chapter XI: Assembly of Forces In Space
• Chapter XII: Assembly of Forces In Time
• Chapter XIII: Strategic Reserve
• Chapter XIV: Economy of Forces
• Chapter XV: Geometrical Element
• Chapter XVI: On the Suspension of the Act In Warfare
• Chapter XVII: On the Character of Modern War
• Chapter XVIII: Tension and Rest the Dynamic Law of War
• Book IV: The Combat
• Chapter I: Introductory
• Chapter II: Character of the Modern Battle
• Chapter III: The Combat In General
• Chapter IV: The Combat In General ( Continuation )
• Chapter V: On the Signification of the Combat
• Chapter VI: Duration of the Combat
• Chapter VII: Decision of the Combat
• Chapter VIII: Mutual Understanding As to a Battle
• Chapter IX: The Battle * Its Decision
• Chapter X: Effects of Victory ( Continuation )
• Chapter XI: The Use of the Battle ( Continued )
• Chapter XII: Strategic Means of Utilising Victory
• Chapter XIII: Retreat After a Lost Battle
• Chapter XIV: Night Fighting

CHAPTER XIV

ECONOMY OF FORCES

The road of reason, as we have said, seldom allows itself to be reduced to a mathematical line by principles and opinions. There remains always a certain margin. But it is the same in all the practical arts of life. For the lines of beauty there are no abscissæ and ordinates; circles and ellipses are not described by means of their algebraical formulæ. The actor in War therefore soon finds he must trust himself to the delicate tact of judgment which, founded on natural quickness of perception, and educated by reflection, almost unconsciously seizes upon the right; he soon finds that at one time he must simplify the law (by reducing it) to some prominent characteristic points which form his rules; that at another the adopted method must become the staff on which he leans.

As one of these simplified characteristic points as a mental appliance, we look upon the principle of watching continually over the co-operation of all forces, or in other words, of keeping constantly in view that no part of them should ever be idle. Whoever has forces where the enemy does not give them sufficient employment, whoever has part of his forces on the march—that is, allows them to lie dead—while the enemy’s are fighting, he is a bad manager of his forces. In this sense there is a waste of forces, which is even worse than their employment to no purpose. If there must be action, then the first point is that all parts act, because the most purposeless activity still keeps employed and destroys a portion of the enemy’s force, whilst troops completely inactive are for the moment quite neutralised. Unmistakably this idea is bound up with the principles contained in the last three chapters, it is the same truth, but seen from a somewhat more comprehensive point of view and condensed into a single conception.