memorandum was found, which appears of very recent date:

The manuscript on the conduct of the Grande Guerre, which will be
found after my death, in its present state can only be regarded as a
collection of materials from which it is intended to construct a theory
of War. With the greater part I am not yet satisfied; and the sixth book
is to be looked at as a mere essay: I should have completely remodelled
it, and have tried a different line.

But the ruling principles which pervade these materials I hold to be
the right ones: they are the result of a very varied reflection, keeping
always in view the reality, and always bearing in mind what I have
learnt by experience and by my intercourse with distinguished soldiers.

The seventh book is to contain the attack, the subjects of which are
thrown together in a hasty manner: the eighth, the plan for a War, in
which I would have examined War more especially in its political and
human aspects.

The first chapter of the first book is the only one which I consider as
completed; it will at least serve to show the manner in which I proposed
to treat the subject throughout.

The theory of the Grande Guerre, or Strategy, as it is called, is beset
with extraordinary difficulties, and we may affirm that very few men
have clear conceptions of the separate subjects, that is, conceptions
carried up to their full logical conclusions. In real action most men
are guided merely by the tact of judgment which hits the object more or
less accurately, according as they possess more or less genius.