d,"
answered the young man; "for he showed me only the order that ought to be
observed in an army, either in marching, encamping, or fighting." "But
what is that," said Socrates, "in comparison of the many other duties
incumbent on a general? He must, besides, take care for the preparations
of war; he must furnish the soldiers with necessary ammunition and
provisions; he must be inventive, laborious, diligent, patient, quick of
apprehension; he must be mild and rigorous together; he must be open and
close; he must know to preserve his own, and take what is another's; he
must be prodigal and a ravager; he must be liberal and covetous; he must
be wary, and yet enterprising. I confess that he ought to know likewise
how to draw up his troops in order of battle; and, indeed, order and
discipline are the most important things in an army, and without them it
is impossible to have any other service of the troops than of a confused
heap of stones, bricks, timber, and tiles; but when everything is in its
due place, as in a building, when the foundations and the covering are
made of materials that will not grow rotten, and which no wet can damage,
such as are stones and tiles, and when the bricks and timber are employed
in their due places in the body of the edifice, they altogether make a
house, which we value among our most considerable enjoyments." Here the
young man, interrupting him, said:--

"This comparison puts me in mind of another thing that generals ought to
observe; which is, to place their best soldiers in the first and last
ranks, and the others in the middle; that those in the first rank may
draw them on, and those in the last push them forward." "He has taught
you too," said Socrates, "how to know the good and the bad soldiers
asunder, otherwise this rule can be of no use to you; for if you were to
reckon money upon a table, and were ordered to lay the best at the two
ends, and the worst in the middle, how could you do this, if you had not
been shown how to distinguish between the good and the bad?" "Indeed,"
replied the young man, "he did not teach me what you mention; and, I
suppose, we must learn of ourselves to discern the good soldiers from the
bad." "If you please," continued Socrates, "let us consider how a
general ought to govern himself in this matter. If it were to take any
money, ought he not to make the most covetous march in the front? If it
were an action of great peril, ought he not to send t