CXvi LIFE OF BACON. 



tent, consists in compactness, with the heart sufficient to 

 support the extremities ; the arms, or martial virtues, 

 answerable to the greatness of dominion ; and every part 

 of the state profitable to the whole. Each of these sections 

 is explained with his usual extensive and minute investi 

 gation, and his usual felicity of familiar illustration. 

 Compact- With respect to compactness, he says, Remember the 

 ness - tortoise, which, when any part is put forth from the shell, 

 is endangered.&quot; 



With respect to the heart being sufficient to sustain the 

 extremities, &quot;Remember,&quot; he says, &quot; that the state of Rome, 

 when it grew great, was compelled to naturalize the Latins, 

 because the Roman stem could not bear the provinces and 

 Italy both as branches ; and the like they were contented 

 after to do to most of the Gauls: and Sparta, when it 

 embraced a larger empire, was compared to a river, which 

 after it had run a great way, and taken other rivers and 

 streams into it, ran strong and mighty, but about the head 

 and fountain was shallow and weak.&quot; 



Martial With respect to martial valour, &quot; Look,&quot; he says, at 



valour. eyer y conquere d s t.ate, at Persia and at Rome, which, while 

 they flourished in arms, the largeness of territory was a 

 strength to them, and added forces, added treasures, added 

 reputation : but when they decayed in arms, then greatness 

 became a burthen ; like as great stature in a natural body is 

 some advantage in youth, but is a burthen in age; so it is 

 with great territory, which when a state beginneth to de 

 cline, doth make it stoop and buckle so much the faster.&quot; 



And with respect to each part being profitable to the 

 whole, he says, in allusion to the fable in ^Esop, by which 

 Agrippa appeased the tumult, that health of body and of 

 state is promoted by the due action of all its parts, &quot; Some 

 provinces are more wealthy, some more populous, and some 

 more warlike; some situate aptly for the excluding or 



