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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: enemy, and to withdraw into safe quarters from a distance whatever
needs protection--a small number, be it observed, is just as capable
of vedette duty, as well able, say, to scan the distant horizon, as a
large; and by the same token men with no great confidence in
themselves or in their horses are not ill-qualified to guard, or
withdraw within shelter[8] the property of friends; since fear, as the
proverb has it, makes a shrewd watchman. The proposal, therefore, to
select from these a corps of observation will most likely prove true
strategy. But what then of the residue not needed for outpost duty? If
any one imagines he has got an armament, he will find it miserably
small, and lacking in every qualification necessary to risk an open
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