Huh. There's no Wikipedia page for Parle Poppins!
@JeremyCherfas yes, it's very obvious throughout the story that Tolstoy was trying to tell how much of a genius Napoleon wasn't. Also, he tried to defend the Czar in some places but in others he showed him as weak and not really in control. Perhaps that was the flavor of the week at that time.
@JeremyCherfas I suspect every single page of this epic has been torn to shreds by PhD scholars over time. I'll look that up though. ?
@JeremyCherfas hmmm. As I read the chapter further, it did seem that's what he wanted to get to. That is a neat way to use the ideas of mathematics to introduce the concept of some natural laws of history. Do you agree by the way, that studying the infinitesimal in history and working to combine their effect is a better way to understanding history than to look at what the generals and the leaders did?