And did you happen to observe, Ischomachus (I asked), whether, as the result of what was said, your wife was stirred at all to greater carefulness?
Yes, certainly (Ischomachus answered), and I remember how piqued she was at one time and how deeply she blushed, when I chanced to ask her for something which had been brought into the house, and she could not give it me. So I, when I saw her annoyance, fell to consoling her. "Do not be at all disheartened, my wife, that you cannot give me what I ask for. It is plain poverty, (1) no doubt, to need a thing and not to have the use of it. But as wants go, to look for something which I cannot lay my hands upon is a less painful form of indigence than never to dream of looking because I know full well that the thing exists not. Anyhow, you are not to blame for this," I added; "mine the fault was who handed over to your care the things without assigning them their places. Had I done so, you would have known not only where to put but where to find them. (2) After all, my wife, there is nothing in human life so serviceable, nought so beautiful as order. (3)
(1) "Vetus proverbium," Cic. ap. Columellam, xii. 2, 3; Nobbe, 236,
fr. 6.
(2) Lit. "so that you might know not only where to put," etc.
(3) Or, "order and arrangement." So Cic. ap. Col. xii. 2, 4,
"dispositione atque ordine."
"For instance, what is a chorus?—a band composed of human beings, who dance and sing; but suppose the company proceed to act as each may chance—confusion follows; the spectacle has lost its charm. How different when each and all together act and recite (4) with orderly precision, the limbs and voices keeping time and tune. Then, indeed, these same performers are worth seeing and worth hearing.
(4) Or, "declaim," {phtheggontai}, properly of the "recitative" of the
chorus. Cf. Plat. "Phaedr." 238 D.
"So, too, an army," I said, "my wife, an army destitute of order is confusion worse confounded: to enemies an easy prey, courting attack; to friends a bitter spectacle of wasted power; (5) a mingled mob of asses, heavy infantry, and baggage-bearers, light infantry, cavalry, and waggons. Now, suppose they are on the march; how are they to get along? In this condition everybody will be a hindrance to everybody: 'slow march' side by side with 'double quick,' 'quick march' at cross purposes with 'stand at ease'; waggons blocking cavalry and asses fouling waggons; baggage-bearers and hoplites jostling together: the whole a hopeless jumble. And when it comes to fighting, such an army is not precisely in condition to deliver battle. The troops who are compelled to retreat before the enemy's advance (6) are fully capable of trampling down the heavy infantry detachments in reserve. (7)
(5) Reading {agleukestaton}, or, if with Breit, {akleestaton}, "a most
inglorious spectacle of extreme unprofitableness."
(6) Or, "whose duty (or necessity) it is to retire before an attack,"
i.e. the skirmishers. Al. "those who have to retreat," i.e. the
non-combatants.
(7) Al. "are quite capable of trampling down the troops behind in
their retreat." {tous opla ekhontas} = "the troops proper," "heavy
infantry."
"How different is an army well organised in battle order: a splendid sight for friendly eyes to gaze at, albeit an eyesore to the enemy. For who, being of their party, but will feel a thrill of satisfaction as he watches the serried masses of heavy infantry moving onwards in unbroken order? who but will gaze with wonderment as the squadrons of the cavalry dash past him at the gallop? And what of the foeman? will not his heart sink within him to see the orderly arrangements of the different arms: (8) here heavy infantry and cavalry, and there again light infantry, there archers and there slingers, following each their leaders, with orderly precision. As they tramp onwards thus in order, though they number many myriads, yet even so they move on and on in quiet progress, stepping like one man, and the place just vacated in front is filled up on the instant from the rear.
(8) "Different styles of troops drawn up in separate divisions:
hoplites, cavalry, and peltasts, archers, and slingers."
"Or picture a trireme, crammed choke-full of mariners; for what reason is she so terror-striking an object to her enemies, and a sight so gladsome to the eyes of friends? is it not that the gallant ship sails so swiftly? And why is it that, for all their crowding, the ship's company (9) cause each other no distress? Simply that there, as you may see them, they sit in order; in order bend to the oar; in order recover the stroke; in order step on board; in order disembark. But disorder is, it seems to me, precisely as though a man who is a husbandman should stow away (10) together in one place wheat and barley and pulse, and by and by when he has need of barley meal, or wheaten flour, or some condiment of pulse, (11) then he must pick and choose instead of laying his hand on each thing separately sorted for use.