20. THEREFORE, THE ELEMENT OF CHANCE ONLY IS WANTING TO MAKE OF WAR A
GAME, AND IN THAT ELEMENT IT IS LEAST OF ALL DEFICIENT.

We see from the foregoing how much the objective nature of War makes
it a calculation of probabilities; now there is only one single element
still wanting to make it a game, and that element it certainly is
not without: it is chance. There is no human affair which stands so
constantly and so generally in close connection with chance as War.
But together with chance, the accidental, and along with it good luck,
occupy a great place in War.


21. WAR IS A GAME BOTH OBJECTIVELY AND SUBJECTIVELY.

If we now take a look at the subjective nature of War, that is to say,
at those conditions under which it is carried on, it will appear to us
still more like a game. Primarily the element in which the operations
of War are carried on is danger; but which of all the moral qualities is
the first in danger? COURAGE. Now certainly courage is quite compatible
with prudent calculation, but still they are things of quite a different
kind, essentially different qualities of the mind; on the other
hand, daring reliance on good fortune, boldness, rashness, are only
expressions of courage, and all these propensities of the mind look for
the fortuitous (or accidental), because it is their element.

We see, therefore, how, from the commencement, the absolute, the
mathematical as it is called, nowhere finds any sure basis in the
calculations in the Art of War; and that from the outset there is a play
of possibilities, probabilities, good and bad luck, which spreads about
with all the coarse and fine threads of its web, and makes War of all