Chapter 2 Chapter two

If it is believed, as historians do, that great men guide mankind to certain ends—such as the power of Russia or France, the equilibrium of Europe, the spread of revolutionary ideas, general progress, or any other, then chance and The two concepts of genius cannot explain historical phenomena. If the purpose of the wars in Europe at the beginning of this century (the nineteenth century) was to achieve the power of Russia, this purpose could be achieved without war and aggression.If the purpose is to make France strong, then this purpose can be achieved without revolution and without the establishment of an empire.If the purpose is to spread ideas, publishing books is far more effective than using force.If the purpose is the advancement of civilization, it goes without saying that there are other more suitable means of spreading civilization than the massacre of life and destruction of wealth.

So why did it happen one way and not another? History tells us: "Opportunity makes the moment, genius takes advantage of it." That's how it is. But what is opportunity?What is a genius? Chance and genius do not denote anything that exists in reality and therefore cannot be defined.These two words only indicate a certain level of understanding of the phenomenon.I don't know how a certain phenomenon can happen.I thought, I can't know, so I don't want to know, so I said: This is an opportunity.I see a force which produces actions which are out of proportion to human nature.I don't understand why this happened, so I'll just say, it's genius.

There is a ram in the flock, and every night the shepherd drives it into a special separate sheepfold to be fed, so that it grows twice as fat as the other sheep, and to the flock, this sheep seems to be A genius.This sheep does not enter the ordinary sheep pen every night, but goes to a special separate sheep pen to eat oats, so this sheep grows very fat and is sent to slaughter as a meat sheep.This situation should be said to be a wonderful combination of genius and a series of special chances. But those sheep need only stop thinking that everything they encounter serves the purpose of their flock; just think that the events happening around them may have purposes they don't understand.They would then immediately see the coherence and unity of what happened to the fattened ram.Even if they don't know the purpose of fattening this ram, they at least know that what happened to that ram was no accident, so they don't need to understand whether it is chance or genius.

As long as we do not search for the immediate and easily understood purpose, and admit that the ultimate purpose cannot be known, we can see the coherence and rationality of what happened to the lives of those historical figures.We discover the causes of their unnatural behavior, and we do not need the terms chance and genius. We can only admit that we do not know exactly what the purpose of the people's unrest in Europe is.We know only the following facts; first in France, then in Italy, in Africa, in Prussia, in Austria, in Spain, in Russia - massacres took place in each of these places; Marching, all these events form a common essence.In this way, not only do we not have to look for the peculiar traits and geniuses in the personalities of Napoleon and Alexander, but we also do not have to think of these two people as different from the others.At the same time we need not explain by chance the trifles which cause the changes in these historical figures themselves, and it will be evident that they must have happened.

Abandoning the search for ultimate ends, we see clearly that a plant has flowers and seeds of a plant, and we cannot imagine other flowers and seeds more suitable for this plant.Likewise, we cannot conceive of two other men, each having their own history, who carried out their gifted mission more properly, more carefully, and more thoroughly than Napoleon and Alexander.