爲 is the reading of the standard text, but the _T‘ung Tien_, _Yü
Lan_ and _T‘u Shu_ all have 謂.
“divine manipulation of the threads.”
Capt. Calthrop translates 神紀 “the Mysterious Thread,” but Mei
Yao-ch‘ên’s paraphrase 神妙之綱紀 shows that what is meant is the
_control_ of a number of threads.
It is the sovereign’s most precious faculty.
“Cromwell, one of the greatest and most practical of all cavalry
leaders, had officers styled ‘scout masters,’ whose business it
was to collect all possible information regarding the enemy,
through scouts and spies, etc., and much of his success in war was
traceable to the previous knowledge of the enemy’s moves thus
gained.”[184]