Familiar Letters

has the standing of the mind and the soul, while the soldiers are, as it were, his limbs and instruments. Therefore, just as neither the foot, nor the hand, nor the mattock are said to perform the work, but the craftsman by whose command they are moved, so in war it is not the work of the soldiers or the army, but of the leader and commander. And Hector was the commander. Therefore, Homer did not speak of Hector with hyperbole or boasting when he said he alone saved Troy. But filled with philosophy and a certain divine understanding, he drew these things from the secret of truth, attributing the praises in military matters and deeds of war to the commander and leader, that is, to reason and providence. Farewell.
Comparison of the human body to an army

LEONARD TO NICCOLÒ. GREETINGS. Even if I, my dear Niccolò, formerly loved your Plato greatly—for that is how it pleases me to call the one for whom you have fought at all times against the crowd of the unlearned—nevertheless, since I began to render this dialogue of his into Latin, such a heap of benevolence has accrued to me that now I seem to have loved only the sea before. For do not think that anything can be found that is written more wisely or more eloquently. I understand this now more than before, as I weigh and original: "ol-" [smell/savor] every word of that man with the diligence of translating.