19.  Frequent periods of inaction in war remove it further from the absolute, and make it still more A calculation of probabilities.

But the slower the action proceeds in War, the more frequent and longer the periods of inaction, so much the more easily can an error be repaired; therefore, so much the bolder a General will be in his calculations, so much the more readily will he keep them below the line of the absolute, and build everything upon probabilities and conjecture.  Thus, according as the course of the War is more or less slow, more or less time will be allowed for that which the nature of a concrete case particularly requires, calculation of probability based on given circumstances.

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 branches of human activity the most like a gambling game.

22.  How this accords best with the human mind in general.