OF THE TRUE GREATNESS OF BRITAIN. 331 



the deadest times for monies, in regard every man 

 restraineth and holdeth fast his means for his own 

 comfort and succour, according as Solomon saith, 

 The riches of a man are as a strong hold in his own 

 imagination : and therefore we see by infinite ex 

 amples, and none more memorable than that of Con- 

 stantinus the last emperor of the Greeks, and the 

 citizens of Constantinople, that subjects do often 

 choose rather to be frugal dispensers for their 

 enemies, than liberal lenders to their prince. Again, 

 wheresoever the wealth of the subject is engrossed 

 into few hands, it is not possible it should be so 

 respondent and yielding to payments and contribu 

 tions for the public, both because the true estimation 

 or assessment of great wealth is more obscure and 

 uncertain ; and because the burden seemeth lighter 

 when the charge lieth upon many hands ; and 

 further, because the same greatness of wealth is for 

 the most part not collected and obtained without 

 sucking it from many, according to the received 

 similitude of the spleen, which never swelleth but 

 when the rest of the body pineth and abateth. And 

 lastly, it cannot be that any wealth should leave a 

 second overplus for the public that doth not first 

 leave an overplus to the private stock of him that 

 gathers it ; and therefore nothing is more certain, 

 than that those states are least able to aid and defray 

 great charge for wars, or other public disbursements, 

 whose wealth resteth chiefly in the hands of the 

 nobility and gentlemen. For what by reason of 

 their magnificence and waste in expence, and what 



