388 ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING 



hill, with an army of four hundred thousand men, seeing 

 the Koman army, consisting but of fourteen thousand, mak 

 ing up to him, he jested at it, and said, &quot;Those men are too 

 many for an embassy, but much too few for a battle&quot;: 6 yet 

 before sunset he found them enough to give him chase, with 

 infinite slaughter. And we have abundant examples of the 

 great inequality between number and strength. This, there 

 fore, may be first set down as a sure and certain maxim, and 

 the capital of all the rest, with regard to the greatness of 

 a state, that the people be of a military race, 6 or both by 

 origin and disposition warlike. The sinews of war are not 

 money, if the sinews of men s arms be wanting, as they 

 are in a soft and effeminate nation. It was a just answer 

 of Solon to Croesus, who showed him all his treasure: &quot;Yes, 

 sir, but if another should come with better iron than you, 

 he would be master of all this gold.&quot; 7 And, therefore, all 

 princes whose native subjects are not hardy and military, 

 should make a very modest estimate of their power; as, on 

 the other hand, those who rule a stout and martial people, 

 may well enough know their own strength, if they be not 

 otherwise wanting to themselves. As to hired forces, which 

 is the usual remedy when native forces are wanting, there 

 are numerous examples, which clearly show, that whatever 

 state depends upon them, though it may perhaps for a time 

 extend its feathers beyond its nest, yet they will mew soon 

 after. 



The blessing of Judah and Issachar can never meet; so 

 that the same tribe, or nation, should be both the lion s 

 whelp, and the ass under the burden: 8 nor can a people, 

 overburdened with taxes, ever be strong and warlike. It is 

 true, that taxes levied by public consent less dispirit and 

 sink the minds of the subject than those imposed in absolute 

 governments; as clearly appears by what is called excise in 

 the Netherlands, and in some measure by the contributions 

 called the subsidies in England. We are now speaking of 



5 Lucul. 6 Machi. Discorso sopra Livio, lib. ii. 



7 Plut. 8 Genesis xlix. 9, 14. 



