Slander: on not Being Quick to Put Faith in it (9)

Of course, all such men are also disingenuous and cowardly ; they do nothing in the open, but shoot from some hiding-place or, other, like soldiers in ambush, so that it is impossible either to face them or to fight them, but a man must let himself be slain in helplessness and in ignorance of the character of the war. And this is the surest proof that there is no truth in the stories of slanderers; for if a man is conscious that he is making a true charge, that man, I take it, accuses the other in public, brings him to book and pits himself against him in argument. No soldier who can win in fair fight makes use of ambushes and tricks against the enemy.