Nor are they wrong.
Looking at the road, as I have seen it, and have tried to describe it,
running broad and white across the valley; at the soldiers moving along
it; at the political officers extending their influence in all
directions; at the bridge and fort of Chakdara; and at the growing
cantonment on the Malakand Pass, it needs no education to appreciate its
significance. Nor can any sophistry obscure it.
CHAPTER III: THE OUTBREAK
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.
LUCRETIUS.
The historian of great events is always oppressed by the difficulty of
tracing the silent, subtle influences, which in all communities precede
and prepare the way for violent outbursts and uprisings. He may discover
many causes and record them duly, but he will always be sensible that
others have escaped him. The changing tides of public opinion, the
undercurrents of interest, partisanship and caprice, the whirlpools of
illogical sentiment or ignorant prejudice, exert forces so complex and
numerous, that to observe and appreciate them all, and to estimate the
effect of each in raising the storm, is a task beyond the intellect and
industry of man.
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