416 OBSERVATIONS ON A LIBEL. 



a physician should not doubt sometimes to purge his 

 patient, though he seem very weak, entereth into a 

 distinction of weakness ; and saith, there is a weakness 

 of spirit, and a weakness of body ; the latter whereof 

 he compareth unto a man that were otherwise very 

 strong, but had a great pack on his neck, so great 

 as made him double again, so as one might thrust 

 him down with his finger : which similitude and dis 

 tinction both may be fitly applied to matter of state ; 

 for some states are weak through want of means, 

 and some weak through excess of burthen ; in which 

 rank I do place the state of Spain, which having out- 

 compassed itself in embracing too much ; and being 

 itself but a barren seed-plot of soldiers, and much 

 decayed and exhausted of men by the Indies, and by 

 continual wars ; and as to the state of their treasure, 

 being indebted and engaged before such times as 

 they waged so great forces in France, and therefore 

 much more since, is not in brief an enemy to be 

 feared by a nation seated, manned, furnished, and 

 policed as is England. 



Neither is this spoken by guess, for the ex 

 perience was substantial enough, and of fresh memory 

 in the late enterprise of Spain upon England : what 

 time all that goodly shipping, which in that voyage 

 was consumed, was complete ; what time his forces 

 in the Low-Countries were also full and entire ; 

 which now are wasted to a fourth part ; what time 

 also he was not intangled with the matters of France, 

 but was rather like to receive assistance than impedi 

 ment from his friends there, in respect of the great 



