OF THE TllUE GREATNESS OF BRITAIN. 



soever another should come that had better iron 

 than he, he would be master of all his gold and 

 silver. Neither is the authority of Machiavel to be 

 despised, specially in a matter whereof he saw the 

 evident experience before his eyes in his own times 

 and country, who deride th the received and current 

 opinion and principle of estate taken first from a 

 speech of Mutianus the lieutenant of Vespasian, 

 That money was the sinews of war ; affirming, that 

 it is a mockery, and that there are no other true 

 sinews of war, but the sinews and muscles of men s 

 arms : and that there was never any war, wherein 

 the more valiant people had to deal with the more 

 wealthy, but that the war, if it were well conducted, 

 did nourish and pay itself. And had he riot reason 

 so to think, when he saw a needy and ill-provided 

 army of the French, though needy rather by neg 

 ligence, than want of means, as the French manner 

 oftentimes is, make their passage only by the reputa 

 tion of their swords by their sides undrawn, thorough 

 the whole length of Italy, at that time abounding in 

 wealth after a long peace, and that without re 

 sistance, and to seize and leave what countries and 

 places it pleased them ? But it was not the ex 

 perience of that time alone, but the records of all 

 times that do concur to falsify that conceit, that 

 wars are decided not by the sharpest sword, but by 

 the greatest purse. And that very text or saying of 

 Mutianus which was the original of this opinion, 

 is misvouched, for his speech was, &quot; PecuniaB sunt 

 tf nervi belli civilis,&quot; which is true, for that civil wars 



