ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 131 



appertains to celerity, inasmuch as speed prevents the dis 

 closure of counsels: it therefore succeeds in importance. 

 Pluto s helmet also seems to imply, that authority over 

 the army is to be lodged in one chief; as directing com 

 mittees in such cases are too apt to scatter dissensions 

 among the troops, and to be swayed by paltry freaks and 

 jealousies rather than by partiotism. It is not of less im 

 portance to discover the designs of the enemy, for which 

 purpose the mirror of Pallas must be joined to the helmet 

 of Pluto to disclose the weakness, the divisions, counsels, 

 spies, and factions of the enemy. But as these arms are 

 not sufficient to cope with all the casualties of war, we 

 must grasp the shield of Pallas, i.e., of Providence, as a 

 defence from the caprices of fortune. To this belong the 

 despatch of spies, the fortification of camps, the equipment 

 and position of the army, and whatever tends to promote 

 the success of a just defensive war For in the issue of 

 contests the shield of Pallas is of greater consequence than 

 the sword of Mars. 



But though Perseus may now seem extremely well pre 

 pared, there still remains the most important thing of all 

 before he enters upon the war he must of necessity consult 

 the Greae. These Greaa are treasons, half but degenerate 

 sisters of the Gorgons, who are representatives of wars ; for 

 wars are generous and noble, but treasons base and vile. 

 The Greae are elegantly described as hoary-headed, and 

 like old women from their birth, on account of the per 

 petual cares, fears, and trepidations attending traitors. 

 Their force also, before it breaks out into open revolt, 

 consists either in an eye or a tooth; for all faction alien 

 ated from a state is both watchful and biting, and this eye 

 and tooth is as it were common to all the disaffected, be 

 cause whatever they learn and know is transmitted from 

 one to another, as by the hands of faction. And for the 

 tooth they all bite with the same, and clamor with one 

 throat, so that each of them singly expresses the multitude. 



These Greae, therefore, must be prevailed upon by Per- 



