76 BACON'S ESSAYS 



are the more easily to be received), and to contain the 

 principal bulk of the vulgar natives within those three 

 kinds, tillers of the ground ; free servants ; and handi- 

 craftsmen of strong and manly arts, as smiths, masons, 

 carpenters, etc. : not reckoning professed soldiers. 



But above all, for empire and greatness, it importeth 

 most, that a nation do profess arms as their principal 

 honour, study, and occupation. For the things which we 

 formerly have spoken of are but habilitations towards 

 arms ; and what is habilitation without intention and act ? 

 Romulus, after his death (as they report or feign), sent a 

 present to the Romans, that above all they should intend 

 arms ; and then they should prove the greatest empire of 

 the world. The fabric of the state of Sparta was wholly 

 (though not wisely) framed and composed to that scope 

 and end. The Persians and Macedonians had it for a 

 flash. The Gauls, Germans, Goths, Saxons, Normans, and 

 others, had it for a time. The Turks have it at this day, 

 though in great declination. Of Christian Europe, they 

 that have it are, in effect, only the Spaniards. But it is so 

 plain that every man profiteth in that he most intendeth, 

 that it needeth not to be stood upon. It is enough to 

 point at it ; that no nation which doth not directly profess 

 arms, may look to have greatness fall into their mouths. 

 And on the other side, it is a most certain oracle of time, 

 that those states that continue long in that profession (as 

 the Romans and Turks principally have done) do wonders. 

 And those that have professed arms but for an age, have 

 notwithstanding commonly attained that greatness in that 

 age which maintained them long after, when their pro- 

 fession and exercise of arms hath grown to decay. 



Incident to this point is, for a state to have those laws 

 or customs which may reach forth unto them just occasions 

 (as may be pretended) of war. For there is that justice 

 imprinted in the nature of men, that they enter not upon 

 wars (whereof so many calamities do ensue) but upon 

 some, at the least specious, grounds and quarrels. The 

 Turk hath at hand, for cause of war, the propagation of his 

 law or sect ; a quarrel that he may always command. The 



