CHAP. IIl] a military TEMPER NECESSARY. 341 



" Yes, sir, but it another should come ^ith better iron than 

 you, he would be master of all this gold." s 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 i-ule 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 wiU mew soon 

 after. 



The blessing of Judah and Issachar can never meet ; sc 

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

 whelp, and the ass under the burden:^ 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 the minds, 

 and not of the wealth of the people : tor tributes by consent, 

 though the same thing with tributes imposed, as to exhaust- 

 ing the riches of a kingdom, yet very differently affect the 

 minds of the subject. So that this also must be a maxim of 

 state, " That a people oppressed with taxes is unfit to rule." 



States and kingdoms that aspire to greatness, must be very 

 careful that their nobles and gentry increase not too much ; 

 otherwise, the common people will be dispirited, reduced to 

 an abject state, and become little better than slaves to the 

 nobility : as we see in coppices, if the staddles are left too 

 numerous, there will never be clean underwood ; but the 

 greatest part degenerates into shrubs and bushes. So in 

 nations, where the nobility is too numerous, the commonalty 

 will be base and cowardly ; and, at length, not one head in a 

 hundred among them prove fit for a helmet, especially with 

 regard to the infantry, which is generally the prime strength 

 of an army. Whence, though a nation be full-peopled, ita 

 force may be small. We need no clearer proof of this than 

 hv comparing EiigMnd and France. For though England 

 k Plut, ^ G^nosw xUx. 9f H, 



