On the other hand, we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that in the majority
of wars the side with the positive object has acted generally on the
offensive and the other generally on the defensive. Unpractical therefore
as the distinction seems to be, it is impossible to dismiss it without
inquiring why this was so, and it is in this inquiry that the practical
results of the classification will be found to lie--that is, it forces us
to analyse the comparative advantages of offence and defence. A clear
apprehension of their relative possibilities is the corner stone of
strategical study.

Now the advantages of the offensive are patent and admitted. It is only the
offensive that can produce positive results, while the strength and energy
which are born of the moral stimulation of attack are of a practical value
that outweighs almost every other consideration. Every man of spirit would
desire to use the offensive whether his object were positive or negative,
and yet there are a number of cases in which some of the most energetic
masters of war have chosen the defensive, and chosen with success. They
have chosen it when they have found themselves inferior in physical force
to their enemy, and when they believed that no amount of aggressive spirit
could redress that inferiority.

Obviously, then, for all the inferiority of the defensive as a drastic form
of war it must have some inherent advantage which the offensive does not
enjoy. In war we adopt every method for which we have sufficient strength.
If, then, we adopt the less desirable method of defence, it must be either
that we have not sufficient strength for offence, or that the defence gives
us some special strength for the attainment of our object.

What, then, are these elements of strength? It is very necessary to
inquire, not only that we may know that if for a time we are forced back