CCCXCV1 LIFE OF BACON. 



Greatness One of his maxims of government for the enlargement 

 of the bounds of the empire is to be found in his comment 

 upon the ordinance, stated in the treatise &quot; De Augmentis,&quot; 

 &quot; Let states and kingdoms that aim at greatness by all means 

 take heed how the nobility, and grandees, and those which 

 we call gentlemen, multiply too fast; for that makes the 

 common subject grow to be a peasant and base swain 

 driven out of heart, and in effect nothing else but the 

 nobleman s bond-slaves and labourers. Even as you may 

 see in coppice-wood, if you leave your studdles too thick, 

 you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and 

 bushes: so in a country, if the nobility be too many, the 

 commons will be base and heartless, and you will bring it 

 to that, that not the hundredth poll will be fit for an 

 helmet, especially as to the infantry, which is the nerve of 

 an army ; and so there will be great population, and little 

 strength.&quot; 



Familiar His love of familiar illustration is to be found in various 

 parts of the history : as when speaking of the commotion 

 by the Cornish men, on behalf of the impostor Perkin 

 Warbeck, &quot; The King judged it his best and surest way 

 to keep his strength together in the seat and centre of 

 his kingdom; according to the ancient Indian emblem, in 

 such a swelling season, to hold the hand upon the middle 

 of the bladder, that no side might rise.&quot; 



His piety. And his kind nature and holy feeling appear in his ac 

 count of the conquest of Granada. &quot; Somewhat about this 

 time came letters from Ferdinando and Isabella, King and 

 Queen of Spain, signifying the final conquest of Granada 

 from the Moors; but the king would not by any means 

 in person enter the city until he had first aloof seen the 

 cross set up upon the great tower of Granada, whereby 

 it became Christian ground ; and, before he would enter, 

 he did homage to God above, pronouncing by an herald 



