ESSAYS CIVIL AND MORAL. 47 



enlarge or command ; and some that have but a small dimension of 

 stem, and yet apt to be the foundations of great monarchies. 



Walled towns, stored arsenals and armouries, goodly races of 

 horse, chariots of war, elephants, ordnance, artillery, and the like : all 

 this is but a sheep in a lion s skin, except the breed and disposition of 

 the people be stout and warlike. Nay, number itself, in armies, im- 

 portcth not much, where the people is of weak courage ; for, as Virgil 

 saith, it never troubles a wolf how many the sheep be. The army of 

 the Persians, in the plains of Aibcla, was such a vast sea of people, 

 as it did somewhat astonish the commanders in Alexander s army, who 

 came to him therefore, and wished him to set upon them by night ; 

 but he answered, he would not pilfer the victory : and the defeat was 

 easy. When Tigrancs the Armenian, being encamped upon a hill 

 with four hundred thousand men, discovered the army of the Romans, 

 being not above fourteen thousand, marching towartls him ; he made 

 himself merry with it, and said, &quot; Yonder men are too many for an 

 cmbassage, and too few for a fight.&quot; But before the sun set, he found 

 them enow to give him the chace, with infinite slaughter. Many are 

 the examples of the great odds between number and courage : so that 

 a man may truly make a judgment, that the principal point of great 

 ness in any state is to have a race of military men. Neither is money 

 the sinews of war, as it is trivially said, where the sinews of men s 

 arms, in base and effeminate people, are failing. For Solon Said well 

 to Croesus, when in ostentation he showed him his gold, &quot;Sir, if any 

 other come that hath better iron than you, he will be master of all this 

 gold.&quot; Therefore let any prince or state think soberly of his forces, 

 except his militia of natives be of good and valiant soldiers. And let 

 princes, on the other side, that have subjects of martial disposition, 

 know theip own strength, unless they Ixj otherwise wanting unto them 

 selves. As for mercenary forces, which is the help in this case, all 

 examples show,- that whatsoever estate or prince doth rest upon them, 

 he may spread his feathers for a time, but he will mew them soon, 

 after. 



The blessing of Judah and Issachar will never meet; that the same 

 people or nation should be both the lion s whelp, and the ass be wecn 

 burdens. Neither will it be, that a people overlaid with taxes should 

 ever become valiant and martial. It is true, that taxes levied by con 

 sent of the estate do abate men s courage less ; as it hath been seen 

 notably in the excises of the Low Countries ; and, in some degree, in 

 the subsidies of England. For you must note, that we speak now of 

 the heart, and not of the purse. So that although the same tribute 

 and tax, laid by consent, or by imposing, be all one to the purse, yet it 

 works diversely upon the courage. So that you may conclude, that no 

 people overcharged with tribute is fit for empire. 



Let states that aim at greatness take heed how their nobility and 

 gentlemen do multiply too fast ; for that makcth the common subject 

 crow to be a peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, and in effect 

 put the gentleman s labourer. Even as you may sec in coppice woods; 

 if you leave your staddlcs too thick, you shall never have clean under- 



