without flinching, but when confidence
has gone no man thinks of anything but flight. [16] Forward then,
gentlemen, against the foe; drive our scythed chariots against their
defenceless cars, let our armed cavalry charge their unprotected horse,
and charge them home. [17] The mass of their infantry you have met
before; and as for the Egyptians, they are armed in much the same way as
they are marshalled; they carry shields too big to let them stir or see,
they are drawn up a hundred deep, which will prevent all but the merest
handful fighting. [18] If they count on forcing us back by their weigh,
they must first withstand our steel and the charge of our cavalry. And
if any of them do hold firm, how can they fight at once against cavalry,
infantry, and turrets of artillery? For our men on the towers will be
there to help us, they will smite the enemy until he flies instead of
fighting. [19] If you think there is anything wanting, tell me now; God
helping us, we will lack nothing. And if any man wishes to say anything,
let him speak now; if not, go to the altar and there pray to the gods to
whom we have sacrificed, and then fall in. [20] Let each man say to his
own men what I have said to him, let him show the men he rules that he
is fit to rule, let them see the fearlessness in his face, his bearing,
and his words."

NOTES

C1.9. Artabazus "the kinsman" named now for the first time, why?

C1.11. Cf. Anglice "his word": a delicate appeal to a man of honour. It
suits G.'s character.

C1.14-15. Speech full of metaphor: winter stalking on, with hunter and
frost attendant on either side; a stealthy, but august advance.

C1.16. A happy simile: _vide_ Book of Wisdom [c. 5, 10, "And as a ship
that passeth over the waves of the water," etc.].

C1.38. How a fault may be turned to account: Hellenic stool of
repentance.

C1.41. Theory of two souls, to account for the yielding to base desires.
It works, but is it not the theory of a man whose will is weak, as we
say, or whose sympathetic nature has been developed at the expense
of his self-regulative? There is another way of putting it in
_Memorabilia_, Bk. I. c. ii., Sec.Sec. 19-28. Xenophon is not more a
philosopher than a "philanthropist." He is full of compassion for human
weaknesses.

C1.44. Exit Araspas, to be baptised under this cloud of ignominy into
the sunshine of recognised joyous serviceableness.

C1.45. We grow fonder than ever