performs everything, but Power, like the Roman dictator, plans
and wills everything, so that hurtful tardiness may be avoided.
And when anything of great moment arises he consults Hoh
and Wisdom and Love.

Before this, however, the occasion of war and the justice of
making an expedition are declared by a herald in the great
Council. All from twenty years and upward are admitted to
this Council, and thus the necessaries are agreed upon. All
kinds of weapons stand in the armories, and these they use often
in sham fights. The exterior walls of each ring are full of
guns prepared by their labors, and they have other engines for
hurling which are called cannons, and which they take into
battle upon mules and asses and carriages. When they have
arrived in an open plain they enclose in the middle the provis-
ions, engines of war, chariots, ladders, and machines, and all
fight courageously. Then each one returns to the standards,
and the enemy thinking that they are giving and preparing to
flee, are deceived and relax their order: then the warriors of
the City of the Sun, wheeling into wings and columns on each
side, regain their breath and strength, and ordering the artillery
to discharge their bullets they resume the fight against a disor-
ganized host. And they observe many ruses of this kind.
They overcome all mortals with their stratagems and engines.
Their camp is fortified after the manner of the Romans. They
pitch their tents and fortify with wall and ditch with wonderful
quickness. The masters of works, of engines and hurling
machines, stand ready, and the soldiers understand the use of
the spade and the axe.