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e. Governments often almost totally fail to sense the temper of their people. The inability of a government to comprehend existing conditions, coupled with its blind confidence in its own strength, frequently results in remarkably weak resistance to attack from within.

f. The outward events of revolutions are always a consequence of changes, often unobserved, which have gone slowly forward in men’s minds. Any profound understanding of a revolution necessitates a knowledge of the mental soil in which the ideas that direct its course have to germinate. Changes in mental attitude are slow and hardly perceptible; often they can be seen only by comparing the character of the people at the beginning and at the end of a given period.

g. A revolution is rarely the result of a widespread conspiracy among the people. Usually it is not a movement which embraces a very large number of people or which calls into play deep economic or social motives. Revolutionary armies seldom reach any great size; they rarely need to in order to succeed. On the other hand, the military force of the government is generally small, ill equipped, and poorly trained; not infrequently a part, if not all of it, proves to be disloyal in a political crisis.