Part 32

"Squire This."

"Squire That."

"Squire T'other."

There is something amiss with the text at this point. For emendations see Breit., Schenkl, Holden, Hartman.

You will find the principle applies elsewhere. There are points of strategic conduct in which generals differ from each other for the better or the worse, not because they differ in respect of wit or judgment, but of carefulness undoubtedly. I speak of things within the cognisance of every general, and indeed of almost every private soldier, which some commanders are careful to perform and others not. Who does not know, for instance, that in marching through a hostile territory an army ought to march in the order best adapted to deliver battle with effect should need arise? --a golden rule which, punctually obeyed by some, is disobeyed by others. Again, as all the world knows, it is better to place day and night pickets in front of an encampment. Yet even that is a procedure which, carefully observed at times, is at times as carelessly neglected. Once more: not one man in ten thousand, I suppose, but knows that when a force is marching through a narrow defile, the safer method is to occupy beforehand certain points of vantage. Yet this precaution also has been known to be neglected.

See Thuc. ii. 81: "The Hellenic troops maintained order on the march and kept a look-out until..."--Jowett.

See "Cyrop." I. vi. 43.

Lit. "it would be hard to find the man who did not know."

Or, "to seize advantageous positions in advance." Cf. "Hiero," x. 5.

Similarly, every one will tell you that manure is the best thing in the world for agriculture, and every one can see how naturally it is produced. Still, though the method of production is accurately known, though there is every facility to get it in abundance, the fact remains that, while one man takes pains to have manure collected, another is entirely neglectful. And yet God sends us rain from heaven, and every hollow place becomes a standing pool, while earth supplies materials of every kind; the sower, too, about to sow must cleanse the soil, and what he takes as refuse from it needs only to be thrown into water and time itself will do the rest, shaping all to gladden earth. For matter in every shape, nay earth itself, in stagnant water turns to fine manure.

Lit. "Time itself will make that wherein Earth rejoices."

i.e. "each fallen leaf, each sprig or spray of undergrowth, the very weeds, each clod." Lit. "what kind of material, what kind of soil does not become manure when thrown into stagnant water?"

So, again, as touching the various ways in which the earth itself needs treatment, either as being too moist for sowing, or too salt for planting, these and the processes of cure are known to all men: how in one case the superfluous water is drawn off by trenches, and in the other the salt corrected by being mixed with various non-salt bodies, moist or dry. Yet here again, in spite of knowledge, some are careful of these matters, others negligent.

See Anatol. "Geop." ii. 10. 9; Theophr. "de Caus." ii. 5. 4, 16. 8, ap. Holden. Cf. Virg. "Georg." ii. 238:

salsa autem tellus, et quae perhibetur amara frugibus infelix.

But even if a man were altogether ignorant what earth can yield, were he debarred from seeing any fruit or plant, prevented hearing from the lips of any one the truth about this earth: even so, I put it to you, it would be easier far for any living soul to make experiments on a piece of land, than on a horse, for instance, or on his fellow-man. For there is nought which earth displays with intent to deceive, but in clear and simple language stamped with the seal of truth she informs us what she can and cannot do. Thus it has ever seemed to me that earth is the best discoverer of true honesty, in that she offers all her stores of knowledge in a shape accessible to the learner, so that he who runs may read. Here it is not open to the sluggard, as in other arts, to put forward the plea of ignorance or lack of knowledge, for all men know that earth, if kindly treated, will repay in kind. No! there is no witness against a coward soul so clear as that of husbandry; since no man ever yet persuaded himself that he could live without the staff of life. He therefore that is unskilled in other money-making arts and will not dig, shows plainly he is minded to make his living by picking and stealing, or by begging alms, or else he writes himself down a very fool.

Or, "this fair earth herself."

Or, "earth our mother reveals her powers and her impotence."

Lit. "of the good and the bad." Cf. Dem. "adv. Phorm." 918. 18.

Lit. "no accuser of." Cf. Aesch. "Theb." 439.

Reading, with Sauppe, {all' e georgia}, or if, with Jacobs, {e en georgia argia}, transl. "as that of idleness in husbandry."

Or, "if not, he must be entirely irrational." Cf. Plat. "Apol." 37 C.

Presently, Ischomachus proceeded: Now it is of prime importance, in reference to the profitableness or unprofitableness of agriculture, even on a large estate where there are numerous workfolk, whether a man takes any pains at all to see that his labourers are devoted to the work on hand during the appointed time, or whether he neglects that duty. Since one man will fairly distance ten simply by working at the time, and another may as easily fall short by leaving off before the hour. In fact, to let the fellows take things easily the whole day through will make a difference easily of half in the whole work.

Lit. "it made a great difference, he said, with regard to profit and loss in agriculture."

Or if, after Hertlein, adding {kai meionon}, transl. "workmen now more, now less, in number."

{ergasteron}, "poet." L. & S. cf. "Orph. H." 65. 4. See above, v. 15; xiii. 10.

Cf. Herod. II. ii. 2.

Or, "Why! one man in ten makes all the difference by..." {para} = "by comparison with."