And therefore to explain how from these relations of theirs the submission of millions of people resulted⁠—that is, how component forces equal to one A gave a resultant equal to a thousand times A⁠—the historian is again obliged to fall back on power⁠—the force he had denied⁠—and to recognize it as the resultant of the forces, that is, he has to admit an unexplained force acting on the resultant. And that is just what the universal historians do, and consequently they not only contradict the specialist historians but contradict themselves.

Peasants having no clear idea of the cause of rain, say, according to whether they want rain or fine weather: “The wind has blown the clouds away,” or, “The wind has brought up the clouds.” And in the same way the universal historians sometimes, when it pleases them and fits in with their theory, say that power is the result of events, and sometimes, when they want to prove something else, say that power produces events.