valour, it were needless to set forth particular instances of
it.

That all, however, may know on the testimony of Titus Livius what
methods a good army should take, and what are taken by a bad army, I
shall cite the words he represents Papirius Cursor to have used when
urging that Fabius, his master of the knights, should be punished for
disobedience, and denouncing the consequences which would ensue were he
absolved, saying:--"_Let neither God nor man be held in reverence; let
the orders of captains and the Divine auspices be alike disregarded; let
a vagrant soldiery range without leave through the country of friend
or foe; reckless of their military oath, let them disband at their
pleasure; let them forsake their deserted standards, and neither rally
nor disperse at the word of command; let them fight when they choose, by
day or by night, with or without advantage of ground, with or without
the bidding of their leader, neither maintaining their ranks _nor
observing the order of battle; and let our armies, from being a solemn
and consecrated company, grow to resemble some dark and fortuitous
gathering of cut-throats._" With this passage before us, it is easy to
pronounce whether the armies of our times be "_a dark and fortuitous
gathering_," or "_a solemn and consecrated company_;" nay, how far they
fall short of anything worthy to be called an army, possessing neither
the impetuous but disciplined valour of the Romans, nor even the mere
undisciplined impetuosity of the Gauls.

CHAPTER XXXVII.--_Whether a general engagement should be preceded by
skirmishes; and how, avoiding these, we may get knowledge of a new
Enemy._

Besides all the other difficulties which hinder men from bringing
anything to its utmost perfection, it appears, as I have already
observed, that in close vicinity to every good is found also an evil, so
apt to grow up along with it that it is hardly possible to have the one
without accepting the other. This we see in all human affairs, and the
result is, that unless fortune aid us to overcome this natural and
common disadvantage, we never arrive at any excellence. I am reminded of
this by the combat between Titus Manlius and the Gaul, concerning which
Livius writes that it "_determined the issue of the entire war; since
the Gauls, abandoning their camp, hastily withdrew to the country about
Tivoli, whence they presently passed into Campania._"

It may be said, therefore, on the one hand, that