In the seven years that have passed, Alexander passes from the liberalism of his early reign to a period of reaction, characterized by the Holy Alliance, the restoration of Poland, and the balance-of-power politics beginning in 1820. These, then, are the events, and the judgments we make about them are relative, according to what contemporary historians consider to be the good of humanity and what later historians consider good. Standards of good and bad are always changing in light of different viewpoints, says Tolstoy, and if we had an invariable standard of good and bad by which we could assess events as they take place, then the"bad" events could be prevented. If this were the case, no dynamics of human activity would exist."Once admit that human life can be guided by reason," asserts Tolstoy,"and all possibility of life is annihilated."
If we make limited assumptions about historical phenomena, as we do when we assert, for example, that great men lead humanity to certain ends like the aggrandizement of France or Russia, then we can only explain specific happenings as occurring by chance or through the acts of a genius. But if we admit that events occur for reasons beyond our ken, we will be presented with a unity and coherence among the facts of history. When we recognize that the events which convulsed Europe constitute the essence and end of a series of happenings, then we sense an integrity of individual occurrences, just as we can accept the integrity of the separate parts that contribute to the whole flower without having to explain the cause of each part.
Tolstoy sweepingly describes the career of Napoleon as built upon a series of millions of chances: his spectacular rise to power, his invasion of Africa, his invasion and retreat from Russia, his subsequent ruin and comeback ten years later. Because of the way events unfold among all these chance happenings, Napoleon considers himself great and confers the title of greatness to whatever he does or fails to do. Yet the final aims of historical persons or nations remain unfathomable, says Tolstoy, regardless of what may be described as their aims.
