"It is opinion that loses and wins battles."

"It is opinion that loses and wins battles.  The fearless Spartan used to sacrifice from fear (Rousseau somewhere expresses astonishment at this, I don't know why); Alexander also sacrificed from fear before the Battle of Arbela.  Certainly those people were quite right and, to correct this sensible devotion, it is enough to pray to God that he deigns not to send fear to us.  Fear!  Charles V made great fun of that epitaph he read in passing, Here lies one who never felt fear.  And what man never had felt fear in his life?  Who has never had occasion to realize, both in himself, in those around him and in history, the way in which men can be overcome by this passion, which often seems to have the more sway over us the fewer the reasonable causes for it.  Let us then pray, Knight . . . ; let us pray to God that he keeps us and our friends from fear, which is within his power and which can ruin in an instant the most splendid military ventures.

     ". . . I put this question one day to a soldier of the highest rank whom you both know.  Tell me, General, what is a lost battle?  I have never been able to understand this.  After a moment's silence, he answered, I do not know.  After another pause he added, It is a battle one thinks one has lost. . . .  Opinion is so powerful in war that it can alter the nature of the same event and give it two different names, for no reason other than its own whim.  A general throws his men between two enemy armies and he writes to his king, I have split him, he has lost.  His opponent writes to his king, He has put himself between two fires, he is lost.  Which of the two is mistaken?  Whoever is seized by the cold goddess."

     The Senator in Joseph de Maistre, The Saint Petersburg dialogues (1821) 7 ("sur la guerre"), The works of Joseph de Maistre, trans. Jack Lively, Minerva series 15 (London:  George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1965), 256-257 (245-258).  French from the original:  Les soirées de Saint-Pétersbourg, ou Entretiens sur le gouvernement temporel de la providence: suivis d'un traitée sur les sacrifices 7 (vol. 2, p. 43-46 (1-99)).