outward form,[37] but by reason of the lustre of virtues shed forth upon the life of man, that increase is given to things beautiful and good.'[38]
[37] 'By reason of the flower on the damask cheek.'
[38] Al. 'For growth is added to things 'beautiful and good,' not through the bloom of youth but virtuous perfections, an increase coextensive with the life of man.' See Breit. ad loc.
That, Socrates, or something like that, as far as I may trust my memory, records the earliest conversation which I held with her.
VIII
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.
[9] See Thuc. iii. 77. 2.
[10] 'Should shoot into one place.'
[11] 'Vegetable stock,' 'kitchen.' See Holden ad loc., and Prof. Mahaffy, 'Old Greek Life,' p. 31.
'And so with you too, my wife, if you would avoid this confusion, if you would fain know how to administer our goods, so as to lay your finger readily on this or that as you may need, or if I ask you for anything, graciously to give it me: let us, I say, select and assign[12] the appropriate place for each set of things. This shall be the place where we will put the things; and we will instruct the housekeeper that she is to take them out thence, and mind to put them back again there; and in this way we shall know whether they are safe or not. If anything is gone, the gaping space will cry out as if it asked for something back.[13] The mere look and aspect of things will argue what wants mending;[14] and the fact of knowing where each thing is will be like having it put into one's hand at once to use without further trouble or debate.'
[12] {dokimasometha}, 'we will write over each in turn, as it were, 'examined and approved.''
[13] Lit. 'will miss the thing that is not.'
[14] 'Detect what needs attention.'
I must tell you, Socrates, what strikes me as the finest and most accurate arrangement of goods and furniture it was ever my fortune to set eyes on; when I went as a sightseer on board the great Phoenician merchantman,[15] and beheld an endless quantity of goods and gear of all sorts, all separately packed and stowed away within the smallest compass.[16] I need scarce remind you (he said, continuing his narrative) what a vast amount of wooden spars and cables[17] a ship depends on in order to get to moorings; or again, in putting out to sea;[18] you know the host of sails and cordage, rigging[19] as they call it, she requires for sailing; the quantity of engines and machinery of all sorts she is armed with in case she should encounter any hostile craft; the infinitude of arms she carries, with her crew of fighting men aboard. Then all the vessels and utensils, such as people use at home on land, required for the different messes, form a portion of the freight; and besides all this, the hold is heavy laden with a mass of merchandise, the cargo proper, which the master carries with him for the sake of traffic.
[15] See Lucian, lxvi. 'The Ship,' ad in. (translated by S. T. Irwin).
[16] Lit. 'in the tiniest receptacle.'
[17] See Holden ad loc. re {xelina, plekta, kremasta}.
[18] 'In weighing anchor.'
[19] 'Suspended tackle' (as opposed to wooden spars and masts, etc.)
Well, all these different things that I have named lay packed there in a space but little larger than a fair-sized dining-room.[20] The several sorts, moreover, as I noticed, lay so well arranged, there could be no entanglement of one with other, nor were searchers needed;[21] and if all were snugly stowed, all were alike get-at- able,[22] much to the avoidance of delay if anything were wanted on the instant.
[20] Lit. 'a symmetrically-shaped dining-room, made to hold ten couches.'
[21] Lit. 'a searcher'; 'an inquisitor.' Cf. Shakesp. 'Rom. and Jul.' V. ii. 8.
[22] Lit. 'not the reverse of easy to unpack, so as to cause a waste of time and waiting.'
Then the pilot's mate[23]--'the look-out man at the prow,' to give him his proper title--was, I found, so well acquainted with the place for everything that, even off the ship,[24] he could tell you where each set of things was
