Tolstoy Leo 
War And Peace (Annotated) 

It had been seven years. Within its shores, the storm-tossed sea of European history had subsided and appeared to have calmed. But the mysterious forces that move people (mysterious because we don't understand their principles of motion) continued to work. Though the sea of history appeared to be static, humanity's march continued unabated like the flow of time. Various peoples formed and dissolved, and the establishment and disintegration of kingdoms, as well as the relocation of peoples, were all in the works.