60 THE WISDOM OF THE ANCIENTS* 



transforming himself into the likeness of a furious 

 wild bull, assaults Hercules and provokes him to 

 fight. But Hercules, for all this, sticking to his old 

 human form, courageously encounters him, and so 

 the combat goes roundly on. But this was the 

 event, that Hercules tore away one of the bull s 

 horns, wherewith he being mightily daunted and 

 grieved, to ransom his horn again, was contented to 

 give Hercules, in exchange thereof, the Amalthean 

 horn, or cornu-copia. 



This fable hath relation unto the expeditions of 

 war, for the preparations thereof on the defensive 

 part, which, expressed in the person of Achelous, are 

 very diverse and uncertain. But the invading party 

 is most commonly of one sort, and that very single, 

 consisting of an army by land, or perhaps of a navy 

 by sea. But for a king that in his own territory, 

 expects an enemy, his occasions are infinite. He 

 fortifies towns, he assembles men out of the coun 

 tries and villages, he raiseth citadels, he builds and 

 breaks down bridges, he disposeth garrisons, and 

 placeth troops of soldiers on passages of rivers ; on 

 ports, on mountains, and ambushes in woods, and is 

 busied with a multitude of other directions, insomuch, 

 that every day he prescribeth new forms and orders ^ 

 and then at last having accommodated all things 

 complete for defence, he then rightly represents the 

 form and manner of a fierce fighting bull. On the 

 other side, the invader s greatest care is, the fear 

 to be distressed for victuals in an enemy s country ; 

 and therefore affects chiefly to hasten on battle : for 



