A.D. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1596. 



out of season do affect the bare stile, to be named men 

 stayed and circumspect in our proceedings. It is re- 

 ported, that Calanus the Indian threw downe before 

 Alexander the great, a drie seare peece of leather, & 

 then put his foot on one of the endes of it : the leather 

 being trode downe at that side, rose on all parts else. 

 By this the wise man did shewe unto him a figure 

 and similitude of his kingdome, which being exceeding 

 large, must of necessitie in all other parts, excepting 

 the place of the kings residence, be alwayes full of stirs, 

 tumults, and insurrections. The end afterwards con- 

 firmed, that this empire consisting of sundry nations, 

 could not keepe it selfe from dissolution. No potentate 

 living hath, or can have so faithfuU and incorrupt coun- 

 sellers, as bee the examples and histories of forepassed 

 times and ages. Wee may therefore bee bolde to thinke 

 [III. 685.] that the Governours of the Spanish affaires should minde 

 it, that their kings lustfull desire, and ambitious thoughts 

 to establish over all Europe one lawe, one Lord, one 

 religion, are built and erected on a dangerous ungrounded 

 resolution : Considering that many of the neighbour 

 kingdomes being of equall force in men, or greater 

 than hee can make, are setled in a long continued 

 estate, are entire within themselves, and hate to heare 

 the voyce of a stranger. It is not unlikely that 

 thev in this case should lay before their king the 

 fatall destinies of many worthies, that have beene 

 constrained for wante of sufficient numbers of their 

 naturall subjects, after many yeeres spent in the 

 warres, to retire to their owne countreys, and have 

 beene glad peaceably to holde their owne Signiories at 

 home, resigning all that unto others, which they have 

 gotten abroad by hard adventure, and much effusion 

 of blood. The King of Spaine cannot but discerne, 

 that his spacious empires and kingdomes being so 

 many, and so farre divided one from another, are like 

 the members of a monstrous bodie, tyed together with 

 cables onely. For take away the trafBque of unneces- 



484 



