१८५७ का स्वातन्त्र्य समर (वीर विनायक दामोदर सावरकर - अंग्रेजों द्वारा छपने से पूर्व प्रतिबन्धित महाग्रन्थ)

THE VOLCANO
In all great religious and political revolutions, it is
almost impossible to connect together links apparently
inconsistent, without thoroughly understanding the
principles which are at their root. On seeing a great work
of machinery composed of innumerable screws and wheels
doing work of tremendous magnitude if we do not under-
stand how the power is produced, we may feel bewilder-
ing astonishment, but never the inner pleasure due to
knowledge. When writers describe such stirring events
as the French Revolution or the religious revolution of
Holland, the very splendour and magnitude of the crises
they paint, often, dazzle and confuse their mind's eye and
they rarely gather sufficient coolness and courage to go
deep into the underlying principles. But without an ex-
position of the hidden causes and the mysterious forces
that worked beneath, the essence of a revolution can never
be made plain. And therefore it is that history attaches
more importance to the exposition of principles than to
mere narrative.
While searching after principles, historians often com-
mit another mistake. For every act, there are various
causes, direct and indirect, general and particular, acci-
dental and necessary. In their proper classification lies
the true skill of the historian. In this process of classi-
fication many historians get mixed up and make the acci-
dental into a necessary cause. These make themselves as
ridiculous as the judge in the story who, in a case of
arson, put all the responsibility on the match instead of
the man who struck it. The real importance of any event
can never be understood by this confusion of causes. Not
merely that, but mankind begins positively to curse the
memory of men who are represented as having started,
with a light heart and private selfish motives, a Revolution
in the course of which countless lives are lost and im-
mense expanses of country devastated. And therefore, in
writing the history of any event in general, and of revo-
lutionary movements in particular, a writer cannot give a
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